


Bomb Digga Woof [Under Construction]

by X (HoneyFire)



Series: 20 Days of Darlenn/Glaryl Challenge [13]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Daryl doesnt realize hes gay for glenn, Dogs, Drama & Romance, Gay Daryl, Gay Glenn, Gay Male Character, Glaryl, Glenn doesnt, Glenn just goes with it, Goofy Glenn, I'm Bad At Tagging, Love, M/M, Possessive Daryl Dixon, Protective Daryl, Romance, Shane Being an Asshole, Shane likes Glenn, Slow Build, Slow Romance, Spoilers, Tagging sucks, Wolfdog, Zombie Apocalypse, as usual, darlenn, dont even know, eventually, gay relationship, im also bad at titles, jk nobody likes drama, more drama, quick updates, rick caught in the middle, yay drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-11 12:05:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7050169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoneyFire/pseuds/X
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So it's the zombie apocalypse. Great, just great. Couldn't get any better right? No more bills, no more pizza deliveries, no more Facebook drama...</p><p>Well, for Glenn Rhee, yes it can. He found a wolfdog, and Daryl Dixon (whom he certainly does not have a crush on) is helping him raise the puppy. After their camp is invaded by walkers and their near death experience at the CDC, they find themselves on a farm. So of course, leave it to Glenn to fall in love, in the midst of risking his life to get tampons, getting relationship advice from Maggie Greene, being pursued by Shane, and burning to death in the summer heat, with Daryl Dixon. </p><p>Yeah, he can safely say the end of the world has royally fucked up his life, and he can't get enough of it.</p><p>Edit: I'm FINALLY working on this again, but first I'm correcting some of my old editing. So please ignore any typos/grammar errors/messy chapters as I fix this xD</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1; Pilot

"374 Avenue Street!" Clair yelled over the loud chatter of the customers,"Two large pepperoni and a medium green pepper." She slid the three pizzas across the counter to Glenn's waiting hands.

"Got it." Glenn grabbed them and took off out the door. 

It was 9 O'clock on a Friday night, and this was Glenn's last delivery before he got off. Friday nights had always been especially busy, but never this busy. He'd been out on 58 deliveries so far today, in the span of 5 hours. Glenn was fine with his rate of 11 deliveries an hour, it had gotten him transferred to better-paying pizzerias like he was a star NFL player or something. Only he was the star pizza delivery guy.

He knew every back road and alley, every little nook and cranky that Atlanta had to offer. Even on the outside of Atlanta, he had mapped out in his head. Blind fold him and put him in the middle of a brand new city and tell him to find a way out, and he would be out five minutes tops. He just knew these sort of things.

Jumping into his still running car, he slid the pizzas over into their designated place and took off to his next destination. With a quick turn through a back alley and broken speed limit later, he was in front of the black house. 

Grabbing the pizzas, he headed out to the house and knocked on the door,"Pizza delivery!" He called out, in an all too fake voice.

A weird moaning noise came out from behind him. Curious as always, Glenn turned around to see a dark figure limping towards him. It sent chills up his spine. Was this some sort of sick prank?

"Uhm...hello?" He pulled out his mini flashlight and shone it at the figure,"Holy-" 

Startled at the sight of a man with part of his cheek torn open and an eye hanging out, he dropped the pizzas at the door and raced for his car. Throwing it back into gear and taking off. He called in to let Clair know he was off shift and then headed back to his apartment.

The stairs murdered his thighs. Usually, he would take the elevator, but it was out of order. The only reason why he could afford this place was because the woman who owned the pizzeria he worked at, also owned this place, and had given him a discount that his income could afford. Barely, but it did the trick. 

Glenn wandered into his apartment, it was a high rise, the reason why it cost him so damn much. 1100$ a month, and plus everything else left him pretty damn broke. But it worked, at least he made something. He walked over to the counter and sat on it, gazing out at the Atlanta lights and rushing cars.

What the hell happened out there at that house?

He got up and flopped onto his mattress, probably would never find out. He spent the next day just laying around the apartment. Studying for college, eating, playing on his phone. That was about it. 

Early Sunday morning, he woke up to the noise of cars crashing together and people screaming. Instantly, he shot to his feet and ran to the window, peering out to see what had happened. He could see a bunch of cars crashed together on the highway, there were police cars everywhere, and he could tell that he was going to be hearing the racket for a while. 

His phone buzzed with a new notification. He checked it, only to find that all of his classes for the week had been canceled due to Atlanta health issues. Furrowing his eyebrows, Glenn went to his laptop to figure out what the hell it was talking about...

* * *

 

"Shit!" Glenn darted from alleyway to alleyway, searching for an empty way out. Why were there so many?!

He finally found an empty alleyway and took off running. One of those..things, came swooping out at him, but Glenn was a little too quick. He heard the dark rumble of helicopters coming closer. Biting back a groan, he bolted for the streets, racing down them as fast as he possibly could. 

**Boom_**

He heard the first bomb drop and detonate somewhere off behind him. Fire lit up his path.

**Boom_**

A closer hit to his right. He saw his apartment building go up in flames.

His feet carried him so fast he felt his right knee starting to give. That old injury was not letting up anytime soon. He kept going, using up every bit of energy he had in him. His lungs burned and the bag on his back was starting to hurt his shoulders.

He finally burst out onto the highway.

**Boom_**

**Boom_**

**Boom_**

**Boom_**

**Boom_**

Atlanta went up in flames. One strike was particularly close, the force was enough to knock him down, his knee popping at the impact. 

"Hey!" He heard a man yell,"Hey kid! Get up!"

Someone grabbed his arm and pulled it over their shoulder. Glenn looked up, he couldn't see who it was, but whoever it was, was pulling him back to his feet and forcing him to run again.

"Come on!" Someone else yelled.

Glenn finally found it in himself to run again and tried for it again. He ran with the man until they got to a van. The van started moving as soon as he was inside, causing him to jolt in his seat.

"You alright kid?" The guy asked, gripping the wheel,"Names Theodore Douglas."

"Glenn Rhee." He sat up and pulled off his bag,"Tha-thanks."

"No problem kid." Theodore smiled,"By the way, call me T-Dog."

Glenn nodded,"Alright."

* * *

 

They ended up mixing with another group, a woman named Lori and an old man named Dale turned out to be the people he liked being around most, besides T-Dog. They stayed set up like that for quite some time until Glenn went out on one of his runs one day.

He was running, not frantically, but he was running. A backpack full of supplies bouncing on his back. He heard a faint rumbling and turned around just a bit to see if there was anyone behind him. He turned the corner without looking and came crashing into a wall. 

"Fuck..." He fell back on his ass. 

A loud growl came out from behind him. Glenn jumped, finally seeing the walker right behind him. He fumbled for his knife, but he couldn't get it out. His fingers finally clamped down on it and went to pull it out, just as an arrow went right through the skull of the walker and it went flying backward.

"You alright there?" A guy with a crossbow came walking towards him and pulled the arrow from the walkers skull.

"Y-yeah." Glenn got up and dusted himself off,"Uh...thanks?"

The guy nodded, bright blue eyes glinting.

"I'm Glenn..by the way..."

"Daryl."

Glenn nodded,"Well uh, hi Daryl." He looked back over towards the road he needed to take to get back to his group,"You um...have a group?"

'Nuh uh." Daryl shook his head,"Just with my brother."

Glenn was about to speak again when he heard Daryl's stomach growling. The man looked away like he'd done something wrong, and Glenn got the feeling that this guy had been scavenging for food for a while now.

"We've got food." He offered,"Well back with my group anyways. I can show you where it is?"

Daryl hesitated, looking over towards where another man was standing around."Dixon, come on! We gotta get movin!"

"Where?"

So Glenn gave him the directions, Daryl nodded and walked away. Glenn sighed in defeat and made his way back to the camp on his own. He was kind of hoping the man would follow him.

The next morning when he awoke, he saw two familiar guys and a new vehicle parked at their camp. He smiled, and Daryl snuck him one back.

* * *

 

"Hey, kid." He heard Daryl call out, as he walked into the woods.

"Yeah?" Glenn turned around.

"Listen. Don't tell Merle or anyone else about me savin' yer ass. You got that?" Daryl kept his voice low and firm,"Merle doesn't like anyone that ain't white."

"Oh." Glenn gulped,"O-okay."

Daryl nodded with a tight smile and pulled a familiar hat down over his head,"You left this too."


	2. Chapter Two; Day 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo..I really wasn't going to post a Chapter 2 to this, but recently I haven't been able to get it off my mind, so here you go! :D Special thanks to @catnip_riceball for the helpful comments and asking me to do a chapter 2! Enjoy :)

Glenn happily munched on the blueberries and wild raspberries he had found while out scavenging, with his toes dipped in the water. It was a nice reward, even though the raspberries caused the inside of his mouth to burn, where he had bitten them. It was a nasty habit. He tended to bite and chew on the inside of his cheeks until they bled. God forbid anybody french kissed him and found those.

Although french kissing with a certain redneck didn't sound all that bad...

Glenn shook his head clear of the thought and continued eating his snack. 

"Hey kid, catch!" Glenn turned just in time to see a squirrel flying at him. He squeaked and nearly dropped his snack, instead letting the dead squirrel hit him in the back, splattering blood on him, and falling to the ground with a plop.

"You were supposed to catch it." Daryl scowled, walking over and picking up the squirrel.

Glenn squinted and held his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun,"Why are you throwing squirrels at me?"

Daryl didn't answer, just slung the squirrel in a circle by its tail.

"Okay, um... so its a basquirrel bat." The look Daryl shot him was enough to shut him up. 

"Where'd you find the blueberries at?" He finally asked.

"Back near the peach tree." Glenn shrugged, and held up his bowl,"Want some?"

Daryl took a few and sat beside him,"Why ya so nice to me, kid? Everyone else acts like I'm gonna kill them _and_ their pet dog."

Glenn shrugged,"You saved my ass out there."

"And?"

"Aaand maybe they haven't had such a good impression on you." Glenn turned and began looking out at the blue water ahead of him,"Can you swim?"

"Who can't?" Daryl popped another blueberry into his mouth. Glenn frowned and looked down at the ground,"How can ya not swim?"

"Had a Myringotomy when I was little, and after that, I wasn't allowed to get water in my ears until they came out a few years later. So I never learned." A what-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about expression crossed Daryl's face,"A Myringotomy is a surgery where they put tubes in your ears to help stop ear infections."

Daryl finally nodded, wordless.

"I always wanted to learn how to, though." Glenn pulled his knees to his chest and rested his chin on them,"It always sucked being the one kid who couldn't go to pool parties."

"Ya kinda gotta know how to swim nowadays, kid." Daryl said tossing a stone into the water,"Walkers can't swim, ya don't wanna be drownin' with 'em."

"I'd probably drown trying." Glenn scoffed. 

Daryl shook his head and contemplated a few different scenarios in his head for a minute,"Tell ya what. You find me a bowl of them blueberries tomorrow while I'm out huntin' and I'll teach ya."

"Really?" Glenn perked up so fast it made Daryl curious as to whether these berries were drugged or not,"You would?"

"Just said I would." He shrugged.

Glenn threw his arms out and hugged him tightly,"Thank you." 

Daryl stiffened at the gesture. People didn't just _hug_ Daryl Dixon. His mama was probably the last person that hugged him. Glenn pulled away after a few seconds, knowing better than to linger too long. It felt cold where Glenn had been. Daryl didn't like that.

"So uh..." Glenn looked over to the squirrel,"Why did you throw a squirrel at me?"

"Dinner." Now it was Glenn's turn to have a questioning expression on his face,"What? Don't know how to..." He trailed off when Glenn shook his head. Sighing to himself, he said,"Those blueberries had better be good, kid."

 

* * *

 

Glenn was up early the next morning, picking a bowl full of blueberries and a bowl of raspberries for himself. It didn't take him more than an hour to get what he needed. He was getting ready to scurry back when a building caught his eye. It looked like it hadn't been touched. There were no walkers, there was no blood on the white walls, nothing.

Curious, as always, Glenn sealed the bowls and put them into his backpack, and headed down to the peculiar looking building. The back door was locked, so Glenn walked around and went into the main entrance. It was empty, except for a receptionist counter and some gray chairs that reminded Glenn way too much of a doctors office.

He pulled out his machete, just in case something were to jump out at him. He peered over the counter, finding nothing but an empty chair and some strewn out papers with way too many words on them. Quietly, he jumped over the counter and slunk into the room behind it. 

There seemed to be miles of cabinets, all filled to the brim with paperwork, with urine and feces all over the floor. It made Glenn want to vomit. One of the few good things about the apocalypse was that he didn't have to do homework. Seeing anything remotely close to it made him want to burn it. 

Maybe he would have a nice little bonfire after this.

There was a door to his right, which was left partially open. Glenn readied his weapon once again, and slowly crept into the room.

Holy shit it smelled awful.

There weren't any walkers. In fact, there was worse. It all made sense now. Why this place slightly reminded him of a doctor's office, and all the paperwork. This was an animal rescue center. Decaying cats and dogs all locked up in their cages, including puppies and kittens.

Glenn wanted to both cry and vomit. 

He made his way back to the door, ready to get out of there. He got back into the former room, deciding that facing miles of paperwork was better than seeing a bunch of dead baby animals. He found another door in the back, which led him to a room that didn't smell so bad. It was full of dog food and cat food, still in the bag and ready to be used.

Shrugging, Glenn made his way to the emergency door and pushed it open, letting himself back out into the slightly cooler Georgia air. He heard a small crunching noise and jumped back inside. A walker passed by the door as it shut. But the crunching noise was coming from _inside_. Glenn turned around, his back pressed to the door, ready to see a walker munching on dog food or someone's leg. 

He saw nothing of the sort.

"H-Hello?" He tested out, looking around the room. 

He heard a small whimper. That definitely didn't belong to a walker. Turning around, Glenn followed the sound and came to a stop by the corner. In front of a ripped bag of cat food, sat a skinny, hungry puppy. He was black and grey, with a tiny amount of tan blended in here and there, and was definitely not a small dog breed.

He was so fucking cute.

"Hi there, little guy." Glenn knelt down and held out his hand. The puppy stood up, his pointy ears flopping with his movements, and sniffed Glenn's hand. Once deemed to be a friend, the puppy went back to eating the cat food out of the small hole he'd made.

Glenn knew that he probably shouldn't. He knew that Shane would kill him for this and would probably torment him for it. He knew that Daryl would probably get pissed at Shane and yell at him to shut up. Because Glenn was the only person that was his friend at the moment, and nobody yells at Daryl's friends. He knew that he definitely couldn't keep it a secret forever.

But fuck it.

"Come here." Glenn picked the puppy up and moved him away from the cat food. The puppy growled and whined, and struggled against, Glenn, wanting more of the food. Glenn felt kind of bad, but he knew it was what he had to do. 

He found a metal food bowl, and filled it with puppy food, and let the little guy down so he could eat. The puppy was all over the food, scarfing it down so fast that Glenn was scared he would choke. While he ate, Glenn searched the building until he found what he was looking for. Puppy supplies. 

He found another bag and filled it with collars, toys, leashes, treats, and two metal food bowls. He also faced the horrid smell and went into the room where all the animals were decaying, to see if anyone was alive. None of them were. 

He spotted one of the bigger cages near the corner, on his way back out, that grabbed his attention. There was a dead mother dog and her puppies, almost all of them looked like the puppy he had just found. Off in the corner of the cage, he saw that there was a small hole, where the gate had been torn back. Just big enough for a puppy to escape. 

Gulping, Glenn looked up to the information paper, zip tied to the gate. It turned out, the mothers name was Hannah, and she was a six-year-old- Wolf-Belgian Malinois mix. She was apparently turned into the humane society when she was pregnant, with puppies that were suspected to have a wolf hybrid father. 

Glenn ripped the paper off and shoved it into his bag, to save for later. He went back to the now sleepy puppy and put a black collar on him. The puppy didn't seem to mind his new attire and nuzzled Glenn's hand. Glenn laughed and picked the puppy up.

"What should I name you?" He chuckled, eyes scrunching up when the pup licked his nose.

"Glenn?!" He heard somebody yell. It was Dale.

Glenn opened the door and yelled,"Dale! Come down here, I gotta show you something!"

He couldn't keep this a secret from _everybody_ , now could he? 

Dale appeared a minute later, looking half worried and half curious as to what the Korean could be up to. The look on Glenn's face told him that it wasn't anything bad.

"What're you doin', Glenn oh-" Dale noticed the puppy in Glenn's arms,"You found a-"

"Yeah, I did." Glenn nodded, kissing the puppy's head and stepping back so Dale could come inside,"I can't just leave him here."

"Well, I can't argue that one." Dale sighed, putting his hands on his hips and looking around,"What're you gonna do? Leave it in your tent?"

"No." Glenn paused for a second,"I'm gonna take care of him, he need's me."

"Shane ain't gonna like that."

"Fuck Shane." Dale's eyes widened at the remark.

"You sure about this?" Glenn nodded, Dale looked around the room once more, and then held his arms out for Glenn to put the dog in his arms,"I'll carry the dog and one of the bags, you carry the food."

Glenn lit up and nodded eagerly,"Thank you, Dale."

"Don't thank me yet." Dale chuckled,"You can keep him in the RV while you're doing your runs. Shane may not like hearing a puppy yapping in your tent."

Glenn made two trips, carrying all the dog food he could find and storing it in the RV. Dale watched the little guy while he did so, and eventually came to the conclusion that he would nickname the dog Rascal because he loved pulling his shoestrings out.

When Glenn was certain he had scavenged everything, he scampered back to the camp and took the puppy off of Dale's hands.

"He loves my shoe laces," Dake commented when Glenn slipped inside to get his new puppy.

"Oh really?" Glenn scooped up the pup and held him to his chest,"What if I named you Laces?"

"I came up with a few, don't know if you would like 'em or not." Dale handed Glenn a list of names that he had written down. 

The first one was RIOT, written in capital letters. Glenn laughed, the pup must not have been easy. Loki, Thunder, Echo, Hunter, Zero and CHAOS. Also in capital letters.

"Zero sounds cool." Glenn nodded, after a minute,"Zero Laces Rhee. ZLR."

"Quite a name." Dale chuckled,"Zero Laces..."

Glenn put a bottle of puppy shampoo and some treats in his bag, along with the blueberries for Daryl, and grabbed a harness and leash. Dale had to hold little Zero still so that Glenn could safely get the harness on and the collar off, without him running off. Once he was on a leash, Glenn thanked Dale, tucked the puppy in a blanket, grabbed his bag, and ran off down to the quarry.

Daryl wasn't quite there yet, but Merle was down by the water. It looked like he was fishing, but Glenn had been wrong before. Sometimes Merle just hung around and sat there, staring off into space, those were the times when he was a little nicer, and a little bit high.

"Ya seen my brother, anywhere?" Merle asked, upon seeing Glenn.

Glenn shook his head,"Not since this morning." He turned away when the blanket began to move. Zero obviously wasn't enjoying his treatment.

"The hell is under that blanket?" Merle was seemingly more confused than anything else.

"I uh." Well, Glenn couldn't get out of this one. Sighing, he set the blanket down and unwrapped Zero,"Found a puppy earlier."

Surprisingly, Merle seemed to soften at the sight of the puppy, even held out his hand for the puppy to sniff,"Wolfdog."

"How did you know?"

"Had one." Merle watched the puppy as he began to drink from the lake,"Teach 'em to fight."

Glenn looked at Merle a little shocked,"Huh?"

"Teach 'em to fight, track a scent, somethin'. Can't just have a dog that can't earn its keep." Merle did have a point. 

"I can try to." Glenn knelt down and let Zero come back to him,"Shane's gonna be so pissed when he finds out."

"That's why I'm encouraging ya, chink." Glenn shot Merle a questioning look,"If it's gonna piss Shane off, I'm gonna milk it for all it's worth."

Merle stood up, and gave Glenn a stern look,"If it gets a good enough reaction out of Shane, I might just help ya get started." 

Glenn didn't exactly trust Merle with his puppy, but he nodded and gave him a meek 'Okay' before the older man stalked off to do god knows what. While he waited for Daryl, he pulled out the puppy shampoo and went to work bathing Zero. The puppy didn't mind the water, although he did try to bite the bubbles that were in the water.

Zero was clean and brushed by the time Daryl appeared, wearing a brown plaid shirt with ripped off sleeves and...were those shorts?

"Merle said you-" Daryl cut himself off when he saw that his brother was, in fact, telling the truth for once and Glenn indeed had a little wolf dog.

Glenn laughed as Zero ran towards Daryl and jumped on him, little paws on his thigh. Daryl picked up the puppy and continued walking over to him. Zero yapped happily, and licked Daryl's cheek, causing the redneck to smile a little. Glenn frowned. The puppy had more game than he did. 

"We still uh..." Daryl gave him a curt nod and put Zero down.

Zero sat down beside Daryl and looked up at him, panting happily in the evening sun. Glenn narrowed his eyes at the pup,"Oh I see how it is."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why but I really love incorporating a puppy into my Darlenn stories. But hey, who doesn't love puppies right?  
> Anyways, Chapter 3 is in the works. :)


	3. Chapter 3; Day 59

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never written so much in three hours in my life.

"C'mon Zero, you got this," Daryl whispered under his breath, trailing behind the six-month-old's lead. Zero paused, his head swerving. Over a month’s worth of training was starting to pay off.

Zero bolted forward once again, leaving Daryl in the dust. Daryl sighed in slight relief and chased after the dog. Zero bounded over through the wolves, leaping over a decaying walker and tearing off into the meadow. Daryl whistled, and Zero stopped, opting for a crouch, eyes still focused on the buck in front of him.

Daryl readied his crossbow, aimed, and shot. The bolt barely missed the buck's throat, startling the animal. Daryl groaned.

"Fass!" The familiar command rolled off his tongue. Zero rose and crept forward, hidden in the tall grass. Daryl whistled, catching the deer's attention and giving Zero the perfect opportunity. The dog took it, suddenly rushing at the animal and snapping at its throat. The buck turned to Zero, jumping back and barely escaping his jaws.

"Shit." Daryl shot the deer again, this time getting a better result.

The buck put up a fight, despite the fact that he was now on the verge of choking to death on his own blood, with the bolt piercing his neck. Zero took another try and clamped his teeth down on the buck's throat. It turned into a small blood bath, but eventually, with a few more shots, the buck went down, and Zero made sure to hold him there.

"You're getting there." Daryl sighed, looking at the bloody scene before him. He called Zero off, and retrieved his bolts, before checking to make sure Zero was fine. As usual, the wolf dog was. Daryl tossed Zero a treat, which he quickly scarfed up, and got to work on getting the deer back to camp.

* * *

 

Glenn had barely made it back to the camp when Daryl also arrived. Zero barked, happy to see his owner, and raced over towards him before Daryl could command him to sit. Glenn knelt and let Zero come crashing into him, nearly knocking him down in the process. Zero barked again and licked Glenn's face.

Boom_

Glenn flinched at the loud gunshot and looked up just in time to see Shane pointing his gun at Zero.

"Shane!" Dale and Daryl both yelled.

Glenn threw himself in front of Zero, muttering,"Plotz." Zero laid down accordingly, letting Glenn completely shield him with his body.

"Shane, Daryl stop!" Lori cried.

Daryl's crossbow aimed at the back of Shane's head before anybody else could register it, roughly bumping him in the process,"Put the gun down, Shane." He growled.

"What the hell are you doing with a do-"

"I don't mind blowing your brain out."

Shane finally got the message, and put his gun down,"Why do you have a dog, Daryl?"

"Glenn found him." Dale stood in front of Glenn and Zero,"He and Daryl have been taking care of him."

"And you didn't talk this over with the-"

"The group doesn't get to decide if Zero gets to live or not." Glenn stood up, with Zero following obediently behind him,"I found him, I find his food, I helped Daryl train him, I brought extra stuff back for Dale, I did two runs in one day for you last week, I get to keep him."

"The dog's gonna atta-"

"Only on command." Daryl snarled,"I can teach him to bite you in the ass every time he see's ya too."

"Shane, just let it go." Lori insisted, her hands wrapping around the gun and pulling it from his grip,"Give him a chance."

Shane and Daryl exchanged some heated looks, which quickly came to include Glenn, and eventually, the sheriff gave in,"Fine. But if that dog bites any of our people, I'm putting him down and you two are burying him."

And thus, he stalked off.

Zero nuzzled Daryl's leg, successfully tearing the rednecks attention from Shane and bringing it back to him. Daryl put down his crossbow and looked down at Zero. Zero closed his mouth momentarily, looked over into the distance, and took off.

Daryl's eyes followed the puppy until he started to see where Zero was going,"Shit."

Glenn was moving before he was, running after Zero, machete drawn. Zero circled the dead buck, growling lowly and keeping his eyes over to the left. Glenn made his way over, just in time for a walker to come stumbling out of the brush. Glenn flinched in surprise, jumping back and yelping.

A bolt went straight through the walker’s skull.

"Never mind teaching ya how to swim." Daryl muttered, pulling the bolt out,"Need to teach ya how to kill somethin'."

"It just scared me." Glenn fought to keep his heart rate under control.

Daryl shrugged and went to start moving the deer before anything could get to it. Glenn wordlessly helped, knowing it was better to help than to just stand there. It gave him an excuse to look at the redneck anyways.

"Why'd you do that?" He asked, arms shaking with the weight of the deer.

"What?"

"You threatened to kill Shane over Zero." He clarified,"Why'd you do it?"

Daryl didn’t respond, instead focusing on finding a place to put the deer and dropping it there. Glenn laughed and leaned against Daryl's truck, half watching Zero walking over to them and half watching Daryl sit down and go to work with the buck,"You like me more than you say you do, don't you?"

Daryl froze, but didn't look at him,"I tolerate you."

Glenn really wanted to point out that Daryl merely tolerated Shane and the others, but he knew better and kept his mouth shut. Couldn't the guy just make up his mind and kiss him already?

* * *

 

 _Daryl's taking an awfully long time_. Glenn thought while he waited beside the water. He looked over to Zero, who was laying on his towel, panting happily with a deer bone between his paws.

"Fuck it, I'm getting in." He stood up and peeled off his shirt, dropping it beside Zero.

He waded into the water, less fearfully than he used to, and began to make his way deeper. He didn't freak out when his feet left the bottom, he simply relaxed, kept his breathing under control, and mimicked what Daryl taught him.

Don't panic, you're not gonna die.

He made his way deeper, eyes closed, breathing slow and heavy. He had this, he was fine. He wasn't gonna drown. He was fine.

He was doing just great and decided to go under the water. Daryl had warned him to be careful, because Glenn wasn't the best swimmer yet, and he didn't quite trust him to swim perfectly on his own, so he tried not to go too deep.

It was fun, swimming freely and not having anybody there to bump into. Just him and himself, and Zero off to the side. When he came back up, he saw what appeared to by the Dixon coming down, so he went back under for one last go at it.

He went further down, this time, fingers and toes bumping the bottom. He looked around, he couldn't see much, but there was something shiny over to his right. He swam over to it, eagerly investigating what appeared to be a large fishing hook. A fish bumped into him, startling him and causing him to flail a bit.

He relaxed once realizing it was just a fish, and decided now was a good time to go up. He went back up to the surface, wanting to breathe the fresh air again. Something cinched tight on his ankle.

Glenn felt the blood drain from his face and spun around. He couldn't see all that well, but he knew that it had to be a fishing net of some sort. Panicked, he tried to swim up, fighting the heavy weight holding him to the bottom. It gave a little, letting him get up to the surface just enough to gasp for air.

He took a few uneasy breaths, eyes searching everywhere for Daryl. He spotted him over by Zero, way too far away.

"Hey uh, Daryl!" He called out, trying to free his ankle once again,"A little help!"

Daryl turned and looked at him, probably with his trademark what-the-hell expression on his face,"Glenn?"

Glenn threw his arms up and flailed them about uselessly. His legs kicking along with the movement. Apparently that was a bad idea.

The net moved, and yanked Glenn back under the surface almost effortlessly. Glenn swam back down to figure out what his ankle had been caught on, and froze. It was an old fishing net, caught under a not so light sunken boat motor. His wild movements had caused it to roll a little, thus pulling down on the net. Glenn struggled to slip his foot from the net, but it quickly became bunched together and became obvious it wasn't going to work that way.

Feeling light-headed, he swam back up, but the net wouldn't let him go any further. His heart began to pound, and black spots began to dot his vision. He kicked his legs and tried to reach the surface, trying anything to draw Daryl's attention to him. He only managed to create a few tiny splashes.

Don't panic, you're not gonna die. He remembered Daryl telling him, as his body began to weaken and give in, although his brain was going a million miles an hour. He blinked tiredly up at the surface. The black spots grew in number, and eventually, took over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to make a clarification, Zero was nearly five months old when Glenn found him. Chapter three takes place a few weeks later on Day 59, so Zero is now roughly six months old. :) I'm really trying to make all of this accurate, anyways, Chapter 4 coming soon :)


	4. Chapter Four; Runs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this got really cliche xD

Daryl had known something was wrong when he heard Zero whimpering and Glenn abruptly went under.

"Glenn!" He shouted, racing closer to where he had seen the Korean and diving under. He found the kid tangled up in some fishing net that he hadn't noticed before, his ankle red and chafed under the rope's angry grip. He pulled his knife out of his pocket and cut him loose, not caring if he accidentally cut the kid's ankle or not.

He wound his arms around Glenn's torso and swam up, bringing the kid to the surface. Glenn's head lolled against him lifelessly, making Daryl's blood run cold. He made it to the shore in record time, where Zero was whining and waiting on their return.

"Dammit." He muttered, pulling him up onto the shore and immediately resorting to CPR. He couldn't lose this kid.

Glenn coughed up a little water, but that was about it. He didn't start breathing again. Not even thinking, Daryl pinched the kids nose, took a deep breath, and pressed their mouths together. It took three more tries until Glenn finally coughed up the rest of the water and began breathing again.

"Da-" He paused and started coughing again,"Dar-ryl?"

Daryl didn't know if he should be fuming or upset,"You got a death wish or somethin'?" He spat. Usually, Glenn would flinch, but he was so out of it that the comment didn't even stir his fear. Daryl frowned and touched the kid's forehead. He seemed fine.

"You feelin' alright?"

Glenn coughed again and closed his eyes,"Lun-" He coughed again,"Lungs hurt." His voice was mangled and breathy, but it was enough for Daryl. Zero whimpered and licked Glenn's face, also worried about his owner. Glenn brought a shaky hand up to pet him and smiled ever so slightly when Zero pushed his head into his palm.

Daryl got up and wordlessly walked away, leaving Glenn on his own. Glenn watched the man stalk off and pick something up, and then returned his attention to Zero, who was now sitting beside him. He didn't have it in him to turn his head, even as Daryl reapproached him and dropped something on top of him.

"Put your shirt on, we're not practicin' tonight." Glenn didn't know if he should be sad or happy that they weren't practicing. Without making a sound, he wrangled his shirt on and tried out his footing. Turned out, it wasn't so great. He got up for a few seconds, but his balance was off and he went crumbling back down.

Daryl caught him by the arm and spun him around, letting him fall back on his ass,"Didn't say to go nowhere."

Glenn pulled his knees up to his chest and nestled against them, aching for warmth. Daryl sat beside him, also cold but, he seemed more adjusted to it than Glenn was.

"Sorry." Glenn managed to get out, after a moment of silence,"I shoulda waited."

Daryl remained silent, with the same absent expression he nearly always had. Glenn braced himself for the yelling. The racial slurs, the pissed off comments about how he should have let Glenn drown. He'd pissed Daryl off before, had accidentally let his mind wander and forgot to watch the squirrels the redneck had skinned. A walker got into them, and Daryl was more than livid.

He still couldn't figure out why Daryl had quit yelling, either. He just turned around and looked the frightened kid in the eye, and something had softened in him. Maybe it was because Glenn was scared to tears and had his nose buried in Zero's fur like a pitiful child. It boggled his mind either way.

Zero whimpered and licked Glenn's face once more, and made his way into Glenn's lap. He didn't quite fit, as he had grown a ton within the past month. Glenn leaned back and lay back down so that Zero could lay on top of him like he usually did. Daryl tore his eyes away from whatever he had been staring at and looked down at the two, surprisingly without any trace of anger in his eyes.

"Thank you, for uh..." Glenn looked over to the water,"For getting me out of that."

Daryl still didn't say anything, but Glenn had already gotten an answer. They stayed there in comfortable silence, almost forgetting that just a few minutes ago, Glenn was drowning. Zero started squirming and decided that laying across Glenn and laying his head in Daryl's lap was the best option. 

"Wanna go again?" Glenn was getting tired of the silence.

Daryl offered him a cut nod and stood up. Glenn peeled off his shirt once more and made his way into the water. Daryl followed him. He never took off his shirt, for reasons that went unsaid. Glenn knew better than to ask, especially when the redneck was doing him a favor, and could easily drown him if he wanted to.

"Shane wants to send a group with ya tomorrow on your run." Daryl finally said, breaking his silence.

Glenn's face fell,"I do just fine on my own."

"Guess he wants more supplies." Zero jumped into the water and paddled over to them, splashing water in their faces as he came,"Heard him say Merle was goin' with ya."

"Ugh." Glenn sunk under the water for a moment to try to clear his thoughts. Merle wasn't exactly the best person to send on an errand, especially with Glenn.

He came back up just before the need for oxygen became apparent, immediately taking a breath of fresh, cool air. Zero was now swimming between them, his furry head swiveling between the two of them.

"I was planning on taking Zero with me tomorrow..." He sighed disappointedly, scratching behind Zero's ears,"Guess Shane said no dogs too?"

Daryl shrugged,"Never said nothin'," He glanced between Glenn and Zero for a minute,"You should take him with you. Should keep them off your ass, especially Merle."

"How was he when you went hunting?" Glenn began to weakly swim a small circle around Daryl and Zero.

"He's still workin on takin down deer and tracking." Daryl kept his eyes on Glenn as he swam circles around him,"Doin really good with keeping his eyes on walkers."

"How can you tell?" Glenn hadn't really asked that yet, he had always just figured that there was a walker when Zero started walking off towards something,"Does he make a sound or something?"

"Nah, can't have him makin' noises, it'll attract the damned things." Daryl explained,"His tail get's real stiff and pointed out, and he'll just stare at them. 'Ts why you need to keep him near ya."

Glenn nodded and laughed when Zero decided to follow him while he swam his circles,"We should probably start heading back. Shane probably won't be too happy if we're late again."

Daryl followed his lead and headed back to the shore. Glenn decided not to put on his shirt again, he would rather let it dry so that he had something to wear the next day. Zero waited in the water for a minute more until he was called. Daryl was already almost a quarter of the way up to the camp when Zero shook himself off.

"C'mon boy." Glenn raced off to join the redneck, trying to ignore the way his tattered shoes rubbed against his wet feet. Zero chased after him, he could run up and join Daryl effortlessly if he wanted to, but he stayed back with his owner instead.

"Hey, Daryl." Glenn huffed, once he finally reached the man,"Do you uh, do you need me to grab you anything while I'm out on my run tomorrow?"

"Yeah, some oil, a lighter, and a compass." Glenn nodded and made a mental note.

The two dispersed when they reached the camp. Merle often got a little finicky if he saw Glenn following his little brother around like a lost puppy. Which in all honesty, Daryl was the only person Glenn had to talk to.

Sure, he had Dale, but Dale often got philosophical, and it wasn't uncommon for him to accidentally let someone's secret slip. He knew if he told Lori anything then it would be told to Shane five minutes later. Carl was too young to talk to, T-Dog was always busy and would put him to work.

Zero stuck close to Glenn as they passed the group. They both felt the stares and heard the little whispers as they walked by. Glenn bit his lip and dropped his head. He hated how they treated him like a kid. Hell, he stole cars before this, he didn't need a bunch of people he barely knew much about making decisions for him.

T-Dog had tried his best to point out to Shane that Glenn wasn't a kid and could make his own decisions, but that lasted less than a day before Glenn was being shipped around to different places and asked to carry way more than his poor back could stand. His shoulders were sometimes bruised from carrying so much in his bag, and they were almost always red.

Zero whined, looking up at his owner, wondering why they were just standing outside of the tent. Glenn smiled softly and crawled into the tent, Zero followed him immediately. He kicked off his wet clothes, and opted for slipping into a pair of green briefs and pulled his blanket over himself. Zero crawled under the blanket and nuzzled up to Glenn.

Glenn buried his nose into the wet dog's fur and shut his eyes. He was dozing off when he heard someone walk up to his tent and unzip it, without asking. A gesture that Glenn found to be quite rude. Zero growled at the intruder, his lips curling up to show pearly white teeth.

"Get your fucking dog under control, Glenn," It was Shane.

Glenn opened his eyes and sat up a bit,"Zero." He murmured, in a silent scold. Zero stopped, but he kept his cold, golden stare on Shane,"What do you want, Shane?"

"Andrea, T-Dog, Jacqui, Merle, and Morales are going with you tomorrow on your run." Shane said coldly,"No dogs."

Glenn didn't really listen,"Fine." Shane left, at least he zipped up the damn tent.

Glenn went back to his original position and fell asleep nestled against his dog.

* * *

 

"Glenn." Lori quickly approached him as he and Zero made their way into camp. She held out a paper plate of food, berries and deer meat and some mashed potatoes, and another plate filled with meat,"I saved you and Zero some dinner last night."

"Oh. Thank you." Glenn beamed, taking the plates. Zero barked excitedly upon hearing his name,"You hear that Zero?"

"I'm sorry Shane tried hurting him." Lori followed Glenn over to where they typically ate, and sat down,"He's a good dog."

Glenn put down Zero's plate and watched him eat before he started eating his own food,"It's not your fault."

"He talks about him like he's a savage beast." Lori glanced over her shoulder to make sure Shane wasn't coming,"How old is he again?"

"About six months." Glenn took another bite of his potatoes,"He's gonna be massive by the time he get's done growing."

"Look's like he's got some shepherd in him."

"His mom's a Belgian Malinois." Glenn explained,"Well, half at least. She and his dad both had wolf in them, which is why he's getting so big."

He finished up his meal and thanked Lori for the food again, and went to go get his backpack from his tent. Daryl was there, surprisingly the man hadn't left at dawn.

"Found somethin' for Zero." Daryl held up a black vest, at least it looked like a vest. Glenn nodded and motioned for Zero to go to Daryl, while he got his bag.

Daryl fit the vest to Zero's size and adjusted the bags on either side. Making sure that everything was on properly and that Zero wouldn't lose it. Glenn watched intently. Daryl knocked on the front of the vest,"Bulletproof." He explained.

"Thanks, Daryl." Glenn offered him his trademark goofy smile, and Daryl gave him a curt nod in return,"C'mon Zero. Let's go!"

Zero raced along beside Glenn as he sprinted up to join the forming group. He didn't pay attention to the smirk Merle wore on his face when they went by, nor did he pay attention to the way Andrea looked at him, or the guy Ed staring.

"I said no dog's, Glenn." Shane crossed his arms and gave him a serious look.

Glenn already had a comeback brewing in his brain. He saw Merle and T-Dog coming up behind him with their guns at the ready, and that was the last bit of confirmation he needed. Looking him in the eye, Glenn walked up to the sheriff, and said,"He's a wolfdog, not a dog."

* * *

"He said a compass, oil, bolts, and a lighter right?" Glenn looked at the compass in his hands, and then down to Zero. If only this dog could talk.

Feeling 90% sure about it, he put the compass in Zero's pack and went to find the lighter, bolts, and oil. He was so glad that Daryl had given him the pack. Glenn managed to find everything, and some spare ammo, which he put in Zero's pack. Satisfied, the two headed back to where they were supposed to meet everyone.

Nobody was there, leaving Glenn on his own to daydream and wander around. He went upstairs and up to the roof, and sat down, leaning back against the wall. Zero lay down beside him and took a nap in the warm sun. The idea sounded nice to Glenn, but he wanted to be awake and ready to leave as soon as everybody else got there.

His mind wandered to the redneck who had given Zero the vest. Him and his ripped off shirts and strong arms. God, Glenn wished he had been conscious when Daryl had freed him from the net and felt those arms around him. But no, he just had to be unconscious and about to die.

"Glenn Dixon." He tested the name out on his tongue, finding that he liked the way it sounded.

He thought of the outcome of coming back to Daryl being worried sick and kissing him right in front of the group. Or kissing him in general. Butterflies fluttered, and his mouth went dry at the thought. He knew it probably wouldn't work out like that, but he never knew. 

Boom_

He flinched and jumped up to his feet. Zero got this look in his eye that all but screamed that he knew something big was about to happen.

* * *

 

"I had a police dog about this size back when I first started," Rick said while he rubbed guts over the plastic on Zero.

"What happened to him?" Glenn was almost afraid to ask.

"He died of old age, around the time I met my wife, Lori." Glenn furrowed his eyebrows at the name. Was is the same Lori? But...Lori was with Shane, wasn't she?

"Oh."

"What kind of dog is he? He ain't no shepherd that's for sure."

"Wolfdog." Glenn really needed a sign that said 'Wolfdog', with some flashing red lights and a fucking theme song,"His mom was a Belgian Malinois wolf mix and his dad was a wolf hybrid too."

"That makes sense." Rick stood and looked at his handiwork before they got ready to head out.

Zero's tail was straight and his eyes were on all the walkers as they made their way through the herd. Glenn tried his best not to be nervous, but as soon as it started raining and walkers began to smell them, you best believe he was nervous.

Luckily, Zero was the first to take off and scale the fence. Some freak maneuver that Daryl had probably taught him. Glenn and Rick followed. He quickly shed the coat of guts and carefully did the same for Zero, and ran over to the key box while Rick took out the walkers climbing over. He busted the lock and grabbed a random set of keys.

"Rick!" He yelled, throwing the keys to him.

Rick caught them and they sped off to the truck the keys belonged to. Zero and he were barely inside before a walker smashed itself up against the window. Zero growled, and Glenn screamed.

Rick threw the truck into gear and sped off down the road, explaining how Glenn was supposed to draw the walkers away. When they stopped beside a red car that Glenn really wished he could have, he knew exactly what was going to happen.

Zero bounded out of the truck as soon as Rick broke the glass and the alarms went off. Rick looked like he was about to protest, but Glenn and the wolfdog were already getting inside before he could do much else.

"Zero, in the back." Zero leaped into the back,"Lie down." The dog did just that. Glenn turned and fastened him to the middle seatbelt by the vest, and took off after Rick.

* * *

 

Glenn and Zero really weren't listening to the bickering about where they should go, he was more interested in his blueberries. The CDC sounded like a good plan. It was close, and it wouldn't take long to get there. It should have been their first stop. If things didn't work out, then they go wherever Shane was insisting they go. Although he personally didn't think the guys would let them in, even if they were still holding up.

"No changes?" Daryl joined them beside the RV,"Didn't miss any good arguments did I?"

"Nope." Glenn said, popping the 'P', and putting the bowl between them so that Daryl could have some too. They were leaving tomorrow, either way, so he had picked all of them he could find.

Zero rolled over and looked at Daryl expectantly. Daryl paused, watching how thewolfdog's eyes were focused on the blueberry in his hand.

"Zero, speak." Zero barked, earning the attention of Lori, T-Dog, and Rick for a few short seconds, and Daryl tossed him a blueberry. Which he caught in his mouth without even trying.

"Hope you know, that whichever place they decide we're gonna go, I'm not lettin' ya out of my sight." Daryl ate another one of the berries and then tossed one to Zero,"Seems everytime I turn around somethin's got ahold of ya."

"What're you gonna chain me to you next?"

"If I have to." Glenn spluttered. He was just being sarcastic! He looked over and examined Daryl's face for any trace of seriousness. All that was there was a half-smile and blue eyes that all but screamed 'test me and see if I'm serious'. It was weird how the man who was so distant toward the others could be so happy around little old him. It really reflected how he had changed. Which speaking of change, Glenn was starting to notice something...

"Your hair is turning brown."

"No, it's not."

"Oh really?" Glenn raised his eyebrows,"When's the last time you looked in a mirror."

Daryl didn't answer, so Glenn searched around in his bag until he found his trusty hand mirror, and handed it off to him. Daryl seemed to catch his drift after looking at himself. He handed the mirror back without making another sound. Maybe in shock that the Asian was telling the truth, or maybe it was just one of those silences that came with the Daryl Dixon package.

He watched as Rick departed from the argument and strolled over towards them,"Where do you guys stand on this? Do you want to go to the CDC or stay here or what?"

"CDC sounds like the most logical option." Glenn said, bringing his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun,"It's closer, we might as well try it."

Daryl cocked his head towards Glenn,"I'm with Korea."

"CDC." Rick announced, turning around, with his hands on his hips, and looking back at Shane smugly,"We leave the first thing in the morning."

Glenn yawned and looked over towards Daryl,"I thought you were talking about leaving."

Daryl shook his head,"Nah. Don't got nowhere to go, 'sides you'll probably follow me if I do."

Glenn laughed,"You overestimate me, Dixon." Speaking of going places, Glenn really wanted to check out Atlanta one last time before they left. He didn't know if he would ever see this place again and wanted to take one last look at the city before he left, probably for good.

"Rick!" Said man turned around at his name,"I'm gonna take Zero and head back down to the city. I wanna make one last round, you need anything?"

"Bottles." Rick motioned towards Daryl,"Are you going with him?"

Glenn opened his mouth to say he was just going alone, but Daryl shrugged and stood up,"Yeah sure."

Zero excitedly padded along behind his owners, licking Daryl's face while he put the vest on him and slipped him a few more blueberries. Glenn emerged from his tent with his backpack, and a leash, still not too fond of having his dog off leash in the city. Once Daryl had his crossbow and felt that he had enough rounds just in case something were to go wrong, they began the journey to the city.

For once, Daryl followed Glenn, instead of leading the way that he typically would. Glenn could tell that he was out of place there, so used to going hunting, not going into the city like Glenn was used to. Glenn took note of his uncertainty, and carefully took him by the wrist, leading him behind a truck to avoid the four walkers coming out from around a corner. 

Daryl didn't pull away, but he didn't move to hold Glenn's hand either. Glenn and Zero led the way to a small store on the corner. It was one of those small, entrepreneur businesses that made a bunch of fancy personalized stuff like bottles and bags, Glenn had seen it around before. He laughed when he saw the way Daryl's nose wrinkled up when they entered the frilly shop, which was decorated with purple and pink.

Glenn slipped into the back, slight relief washing over him when he saw the undecorated bottles lined up on a shelf. He let go of Daryl's wrist to pick one up,"You see another bag anywhere?"

Daryl looked around, coming up empty,"Nothin' but..." He picked up a large white purse with 'Salty' written in black on it,"This thing."

"Won't hold much." Glenn said, stating the obvious,"Just put 'em in mine."

Daryl nodded and began putting the bottles into Glenn's bag. He was surprisingly gentle, he wasn't rough and jerking Glenn about while trying to put the bottles into his bag. Glenn tried to ignore the fluttering in his belly when Daryl steadied him by gripping his neck. His stomach jumped up into his throat when a finger gently swiped at the sensitive spot behind his ear, even if it was just an accident.

"You tired or somethin?" Daryl asked, noticing how Glenn stumbled when he let go.

"A little," Glenn replied quietly, beginning to wander off towards the front of the store.  

Daryl and Zero followed right behind him and went back out into the open, empty city road. Glenn's mind focused on how Daryl touched him. Feeling light as a feather, he walked around the corner.

"Glenn!" Daryl had seen the horde of walkers before Glenn had and grabbed him by the arm, yanking him back and whistling at Zero to do the same.

There were way too many walkers to count, and almost all of them had seen Glenn. Daryl pulled them back into the frilly shop and slammed the door behind them. Glenn flinched, ready to be yelled at. Daryl didn't let go of Glenn's arm. He pulled him into the back room and looked around. 

"C'mon." He threw open a set of doors and led Glenn and Zero up a flight of stairs and threw open another set of doors. 

He threw Glenn into the room and slammed the doors shut. He was already beginning to move the large cherry wood dresser in front of them by the time Glenn got up. Quickly, to avoid angering the man any further, he shrugged the bag off, dropped the leash, and ran over and helped the redneck push the dresser. 

"The hell was you thinkin?" Daryl panted, resting his hands on his knees.

"Didn't hear them." Glenn scrambled for a justification that would work.

Daryl had him slammed against the wall before Glenn could even register it. Zero barked, looking at them curiously. 

"See what I meant by never lettin' you out of my sight?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I combined chapters Four and Five because they were both really short, and it got super long xD Chapter Five is going up Friday! :)


	5. Chapter Five;The Day It Started

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And FINALLY THE ROMANCE BEGINS. 
> 
>  
> 
> ...I apologize if Daryl is a little different than you were expecting, I just believe that Season 1 Daryl doesn't give a crap about whether anybody sees him with Glenn or not, rather thanhiding the relationship (which is pretty typical in Darlenn/Glaryl fanfiction). I just wanted to do something a little different, with a bit of overly cuddly Glenn with no boundaries. Anyways, enjoy :)

Arms slipped around him before he could even come up with a stuttered reply. Glenn bit his lip to stifle any sounds coming out of him and cautiously hugged him back, his arms wrapping around Daryl's shoulders and his chin hitching on his shoulder. His stomach fluttered at how Daryl's arms wound perfectly around him, his arms crossing each other and gripping his waist tightly, with his head resting on his shoulder, the blond hair tickling his neck. 

"I'm not going to lose you too," Daryl muttered, pulling back just enough so that he could knock Glenn's hat off and then cup the back of his head. 

"Y-you're not gonna hit me?" Glenn wanted to slap himself for saying that as soon as the words were out of his mouth.

Daryl frowned,"That's what you think?" He sounded so..hurt. It made Glenn's gut wrench.

Glenn shook his head,"No, its just...its just that sometimes you get a little unpredictable when you get mad."

Daryl's frown erased a little bit," 'M not mad."

Glenn quieted down, tightening his arms around Daryl's neck and pulling him a little closer. Daryl took the opportunity and leaned forward. Noses and lips bumped together in a messy, unplanned kiss. Daryl froze, he hadn't even thought of what he was doing until it was too late. Glenn's almond shaped eyes fluttered shut, soft lips moving against his rough ones. 

Glenn's fingers wound into his hair, scratching his scalp lightly. Daryl gave in to the encouragement and began to mimic Glenn's actions. Zero lay down, deciding to ignore the sudden change in the atmosphere. One minute he's walking alongside Glenn and the next he's in an unfamiliar room and they're both getting all lovey. _Humans_.

**Boom_**

**Boom_**

**Boom_**

The two tore apart, and Zero rose to his feet at the gunshots. Daryl and Glenn turned to peer out the window, spotting a few other survivors they had never seen before, running through the streets and gunning down walkers. Daryl pulled Glenn from the window and hid them from sight.

"Guess we're gonna be here a while." He said, turning back to the Korean.

Glenn laughed at the expression Daryl wore on his face and glanced around the room. It was a one room apartment, with a ton of crafting supplies strewn out and a bed over to their right. Glenn sat down on the bed. It was just like the one he had before.

"Come on." He lay down and yawned,"It's comfy."

Daryl joined him on the bed and put his hands behind his head. Glenn watched the tension fade out of him. Zero decided to curl up in his rightful place at the foot of the bed. Glenn rolled over and tucked himself into the crook of Daryl's arm, smiling goofily. Daryl looked a little bit surprised at the gesture. 

It felt weird, having the younger Korean nestled against him, looking at him like he hung all the stars in the sky or something. Glenn's arm snaked over his stomach, almost clinging to him in a way. He tried to ignore it. Glenn dozed off like that, sprawled over him, a small smile still on his face.

Daryl wasn't used to this. He was used to sleeping alone, bickering with Merle and having to get into fights because Merle couldn't keep his trap shut. Now he was laying in a bed, above a store named Blossom's Boutique, during the end of the world, with an exotic beauty curled up against him. He had half the mind to believe the kid had been dropped as a child or something, because why him?

"What?" Daryl noticed Zero staring at him. The wolfdog got up and lay back down in the empty space between Glenn, and the edge of the bed. Sighing, he put his arm down and wrapped it around Glenn. The kid was nice to have around, other than the fact that he had a habit of almost dying a lot. 

He remembered the first time he had seen the kid, fumbling for his knife and a walker hovering over him. He had laughed when he realized the kid left his hat behind and had run back to pick it up. Merle had shot him a weird look for it, but disregarded it and instead insisted that they 'rob the camp blind'. Daryl knew he wouldn't do it, but went with it anyways.

He'd been drawn to the kid from the start, and it was anything but obvious that the kid was drawn to him too. It had just taken a simple exchange of blueberries for swim lessons, finding a puppy, and getting cornered in a one room apartment over a shop. 

Glenn stirred in his sleep and wriggled around, nestling his nose further into the man's side. Daryl rolled over on his side so the kid could comfortably nuzzle into his chest and relax again. He didn't realize he fell asleep until he was woken up to Glenn shaking him awake. 

"Hey." He whispered, nose bumping Daryl's cheek,"We need to get back to the camp before they start getting worried."

"A'ight." He sat up and went to help Glenn move the dresser.  The kid retrieved his crossbow for him and smiled brightly when Daryl took it,"Your acting like you just won the lottery, kid."

Glenn went still at that. Sighing, and knowing he was going to shoot himself for this later, Daryl turned and gave him a soft kiss,"C'mon."

Glenn was oddly silent as he followed Daryl out of Atlanta, with Zero walking beside him, just as quietly. Daryl turned around, making a motion with his hand to catch up and decrease the distance between them. It was getting dark, he didn't like being this spread apart. 

Glenn jogged after him until they were walking side by side. His hand brushed against Daryl's. They brushed together again, and again, and again. Growing frustrated, Daryl sized the kids hand and wound their fingers together himself.

"Ya don't have to be so shy about it." He said, trying not to scare the kid. Glenn looked up at him, smiling a little bit again. Glenn held onto his hand the whole way back to the camp, not letting go even as they approached the camp and came into sight.

"You're okay with them seeing?" Glenn asked, sounding slightly shocked.

Daryl shrugged,"Don't give a shit what they see, ain't none of their damn business" He made a motion with his crossbow towards Shane, who was sitting beside the fire,"Might remind Shane that you ain't his bitch."

"What do you mean?" Glenn inquired, confused.

"Don't act like I ain't seen him bossing ya around." He gave Glenn's hand a squeeze and led him on into camp. Zero pranced beside them, sensing the change in his owners. 

Rick approached them, he noticed how their hands were linked together, but knew it wasn't his business,"You find any bottles?"

Glenn nodded, and let go of Daryl's hand to shrug off his backpack,"This enough?"

"More than enough." Rick smiled,"Thanks, Glenn. I'll get this back to you in an hour or so."

* * *

 

"Glenn." Something touched his cheek,"Glenn, wake up."

Glenn opened his eyes, and looked up at the figure towering above him,"Huh?"

"C'mon, we're leavin in an hour." It was Daryl.

Glenn yawned tiredly and nestled back into Zero's fur,"Five more minutes."

Daryl ran his finger over Glenn's cheek,"C'mon. We gotta get your tent in my truck and you need to take Zero out for a bit."

Glenn looked up at Daryl and sighed,"Fine."

He got up and finished shoving his blanket into his bag and pulled out Zero's leash, just in case,"Come on, boy." He said, crawling out of the tent and waiting for him to follow,"Daryl said so."

Daryl pulled the baseball cap over Glenn's head, and started working on getting the tent disassembled,"I'll handle this, you deal with everythin' else."

Glenn took Zero out on a small jog around the quarry, quickly joined by Rick, who also had a habit of doing it.

"Dale wants you to help him with directions." He said once he caught up to the younger man.

"Alright." Glenn wanted to go with Daryl, but he knew Zero wouldn't like being squeezed into the little cabin. He looked down towards Zero, who was running along beside them,"Does Shane not like dogs or something?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he tried shooting Zero the first time he saw him."  He explained, the memory engrained in his brain,"And he always does things that set Zero off, and then get's mad at me for it."

"Don't know. He always complains about Zero but, I don't see nothing wrong with him. Zero's just protecting you, like he's been trained to do," They turned around and started back for the camp,"I'll talk to him."

"Thanks." Glenn didn't speak the rest of the jog back. After the jog, and letting Zero do his business, he went to talk to Dale.

"Rick already tell ya?" Dale asked, and Glenn nodded, wiping the sweat from his brow,"I saw you holdin' hands with Dixon."

"So?" Glenn put his hands on his hips and looked down at Zero.

"I'm gonna say it once, and only once, so I want you to listen." Dale said,"He's not a good influence on you, the moment he see's his brother he's gonna ditch you and never look back. He's going to get you into trouble, and in the end, you're gonna wish you listened."

Glenn tried to stay quiet, but gave in and said,"Daryl's not like that. He's saved my ass a ton of times, he just did yesterday on my run."

Dale dropped the subject like a walker head and walked back into the RV. Zero and Glenn looked at each other as if they could understand one another for a split second, almost exchanging expressions in a way. 

"Glenn, get off your ass and help me with this!" Shane yelled, dragging a large cooler towards his jeep. 

Glenn jogged off to help, even though he didn't really want to. Zero followed, as usual, to Shane's disappointment. Glenn helped him get the large cooler into his jeep and took off right after.

"You bringing your mutt to the CDC?" Shane asked, making Glenn freeze in his steps,"You sure they ain't gonna shoot him?"

"He's not a mutt." Glenn said matter of factly, turning around and glaring at Shane,"And they're not gonna shoot him, thank you very much."

"If that dog is the reason why we can't get in, he's getting a bullet in his brain."

"And you'll have two in your chest, hell I'll let you turn and then I'll put a third in your skull." Shane went dead silent at the words snarled out of the supposedly innocent kid's mouth. In the corner of his eye, Glenn could see Dale looking at him with his signature expression, eyes bulging out of his head, looking like he just walked in on a couple of walkers having a conversation. 

Glenn turned on his heels and walked away,"Come on Zero." 

* * *

 

"First chance we get, we should teach him to knock down walkers and improve on how well he takes down a man." Rick said, taking the yellow tennis ball from Zero,"Shouldn't take him too long to learn, and these days its worth more than gold."

Glenn nodded,"Sounds like a plan."

"Shane won't like it, especially because a well-trained dog Zero's size can easily sever fingers or break an arm." Rick tossed the ball again, and Zero tore after it, kicking up dirt and rocks in the mad dash to catch it before it hit the ground.

"Glenn, Glenn!" Carl came running up to them with a piece of deer meat in his hand,"Can I feed Zero a treat?"

Glenn nodded,"Sure." Zero made it back to them, careful to slow down and swerve around Carl to drop the ball in Rick's waiting hands.

"Zero, sit!" Zero sat down when he heard Carl's command. Carl held out the treat for Zero, who carefully took it from his fingers and scarfed it down,"Good boy." Carl hugged him and sat down on the log beside his dad,"Are you and Daryl together?" Rick spit out his water and Glenn about choked on his damn tongue. 

"I guess you could say that." Glenn turned his head, pretending he heard somebody,"Hey I think I hear your mom."

"Don't tell her I got out of the car!" The kid flew across camp and off to wherever he had come from.

"That kid sometimes." Rick chuckled, throwing the ball again,"I was gonna ask yesterday but I figured Daryl wouldn't like it."

"I don't really know myself, to be honest." Glenn sighed,"I guess I'll find out, though."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I uhm...might have watched nothing but Dr.Phil while making this.


	6. Chapter Six; CDC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its so late, I've been visiting family :P

"I know you're in there!" Rick shouted, along with every other unintelligble thing. Glenn whizzed around with his gun, grabbing up Daryl's bolts and taking down what walkers he could. One of the walkers fell on him, causing Daryl to yell at Rick and come sprinting to Glenn's aid.

Glenn clung to Daryl from the moment that he was pulled to his feet. Zero growled at the walkers, unsure of what to do. The doors opened at the last moment, allowing them to run inside to safety. Zero, Glenn, and Daryl stayed in their little bundle, even as they scrambled inside and looked around the main entrance.

"Hello?" Rick called out.

A gun cocked. In retaliation, Glenn, Rick, and the others pointed their weapons towards the sound.

"Anybody infected?" A man with a white shirt and a machine gun called out.

"One of our group was." Rick replied,"He didn't make it."

"Why are you here? What do you want?" Glenn put down his gun in exchange for signaling Zero to lay down. A small attempt to make the dog look smaller and like less of a threat.

"A chance." Glenn really wanted to talk to Rick about his pleading skills.

"That's asking an awful lot these days." The doctor walked towards them a little more.

"I know." Glenn and Lori had the same 'What the hell are you doing' expression on their faces. 

The doctor looked them over for a moment,"You all submit to a blood test, that's the price of admission." He motioned towards Zero,"He feral or is he tame?"

"He's tame." Glenn and Rick said at the same time.

The doctor put down his gun,"You guys got stuff to bring in, bring it now. Once this door closes it stays closed."

\--

Turns out Zero did not like needles. At all. It took both Daryl and Glenn talking to him and petting him for Jenner to be able to take his blood. 

"He's got quite a bit of wolf in him." He observed once he had the test,"You guys can join the others. There's some water and I'm sure he'll be fine with steak."

Zero turned out to love steak, as Glenn had expected. The dog sat right beside Glenn, eating steak off a plate and gnawing on a bone the whole time. Glenn was reading the label on the wine, just out of curiosity while the others laughed about how Carl didn't like the wine. 

"Not you Glenn." He heard Daryl say.

"What?" He laughed nervously, looking up at the redneck.

"Keep drinkin' little man, I wanna see how red your face can get." Glenn turned his head to avoid giving the man the satisfaction of turning his cheeks beet red.  

While the conversation went on, Shane being typical Shane and Daryl walking circles around the table for some reason beyond his knowledge, Glenn decided to focus on Zero. He paid attention as the conversation took a dark and solemn twist, and Zero seemed to catch on to it too. 

Besides the whole incident with the needle, Zero seemed to like Jenner. Following behind him as the man talked about the housing being shut off and the cots in storage, but one sentence stood out to Glenn that made his day turn for the better.

"Same applies. If you shower, go easy on the hot water."

Glenn turned around, a smile creeping onto his face,"Hot water?"

"That's what the man said," T-Dog replied with an even wider grin.

Zero barked, commencing everybody to start moving and start finding rooms. Of course, Glenn and Daryl took a room together. The room was small, with a big brown couch and a few blankets, and some personal belongings laying around. Zero pounced on the fuzzy purple rug like a rat was under it, rolling in it and jumping about because it felt funny on his feet.

"Having fun there, Z?" Daryl laughed, partially drunk and the rest of him careless as ever,"Huh boy?"

Zero barked and ran around the room excitedly, almost knocking Glenn over as he tried to grab two bath robes and investigate the closet, which turned out to be full of new clothes.

"Hey, Daryl." He grabbed a long sleeved shirt from the closet,"Look, sleeves." And then threw it at the man. 

"Haha, very funny." Daryl ripped the sleeves off of the brown striped shirt and flung it back at him,"No sleeves." He wrapped the two sleeves together, and knotted them up, tossing them to Zero to chew on. 

"Sooo..." Glenn walked over towards him, dropping the robes so that he could wrap his arms around Daryl's shoulders,"I guess it's too early to ask to shower together while we have hot water that I _can't_ drown in?"

Daryl took another swig of the wine and set it on the table behind them,"C'mere you little brat."

* * *

 

"My ass hurts."

Daryl tried not to choke on the wine and turned to the nearly naked Korean nestled against him,"I wonder why." Glenn rolled his eyes and sat up, rolling over so that he was straddling Daryl's hips. Daryl raised an eyebrow,"What?"

Glenn shrugged and decided that laying on top of Daryl was a good idea,"My ass hurts from sitting in the RV almost all day. Daryl scoffed and rolled his eyes. 

"I think I'm drunk."

"You are." Daryl wrapped his arm around the younger male's smaller body to make sure he wasn't going anywhere,"Gonna have a shitty hangover in the morning."

Glenn giggled and moved up to kiss his cheek over and over,"You wanna play a game?"

Daryl really didn't want to move, so he wrapped the other arm around Glenn and settled his nose in the kids neck. It still felt weird, but Glenn made it easy for him to forget that. When the weight began to make it hard to breathe, he rolled them over, causing Glenn to let out a loud squeak of surprise and cling to him.

"Shh." He put a hand over Glenn's mouth,"Don't wanna wake anyone up."

The doorknob twisted and the door began to open, Glenn's eyes widened,"D-Daryl-"

"Get off of him!" A stranger pounced on Daryl and ripped him off of Glenn, punching him in the face. It was Shane.

Zero was up and barking wildly as soon as the fight started. Glenn panicked, barely getting out the word,"Fass!" 

Zero surged up before Shane could hit Daryl again, his teeth clamping down on Shane's arm and pulling it with him as he landed on the bed, pulling it back and causing bones to pop. Shane roared with pain, turning to hit Zero with his left hand. He missed the first time, and by the time he was preparing for the second punch, Glenn's smaller hand was connecting with Shane's jaw just in time to stop it.

"Aus!" Zero backed out, and moved a few feet back before Daryl was on top of Shane, pounding his fist into the man's face over and over, knuckles splitting and Shane's nose busting. 

Glenn ran over towards Zero, dropping to his knees and wrapping his arms around the wolfdog, flinching every time he heard skin collide with skin. Daryl stopped once he was sure Shane was unconscious, and pulled the man out of the room, leaving him in the hallway after. 

"Yo a'ight?" Daryl asked, coming over and putting his uninjured hand on Glenn's shoulder.

Glenn nodded,"Y-Yeah." He took Daryl's bloody hand and looked at it, inspecting the damage.

Daryl cleaned his hand and wrapped it, while Glenn fussed and worried over Zero, scared that he was injured,"Do you think Jenner's gonna kick him out?" He asked nervously.

"If he does, I'm goin' with him." Daryl sat on the bed, messing with the gauze on his hand, which Glenn had insisted he put on.

Glenn joined him on the bed, followed by Zero, who sniffed his owners before he jumped back down and curled up on the fuzzy rug. Daryl put his arm around Glenn's shoulders,"C'mere." Glenn leaned into him, not making a sound. He laid them back down and let Glenn curl into him, clinging to him like a bug.

"Then I'm going too." Glenn finally said, voice quiet and slurred,"I don't care how much Dale tells me not to."

Daryl nodded against him and kissed his forehead,"Go to sleep." Glenn was out faster than a light. Rolling his eyes, Daryl looked over to Zero, who was looking at them expectantly,"Fine, get up here."

* * *

 

"What happened to you, Shane?" T-Dog asked while he was trying to get Glenn to eat his eggs. Glenn took the opportunity and flung the eggs from the fork towards Zero, who jumped up and caught them in his mouth seamlessly. Carl giggled, and Glenn held a finger to his lips.

"That redneck and that dog happened that's what." Shane snapped, raising his arm to show a set of bites.

"Glenn?" Rick turned to said Korean and Daryl,"What happened last night?"

"He came into our room and attacked Daryl." Glenn snarled, despite his pounding hangover. Zero stood up, eyes focused intently on Shane.

"He was on top of you."

"So?" Glenn snapped,"We were just playing around until you came in."

"Glenn." Dale gave Glenn that looks again,"Remember what I told you earlier? Nothing but trouble."

"Hey, he's the one that came barging in and attacked me." Daryl broke his silence, gesturing at Shane with an open hand,"He know's we have Zero, he shoulda known he wouldn't just sit still and watch."

"Glenn I'm sorry but Zero has been almost nothing but trouble since you got him," Dale said.

Glenn reluctantly took a bite of his eggs and turned to Zero,"This isn't about Zero, who has done nothing wrong by the way, this is about Shane barging in, in the middle of the night, and attacking Daryl. I'm the one who told Zero to bite Shane because I didn't want him to hurt Daryl. I called him out, I called him off."

"Gle-"

" _I_ think." Rick raised his voice over the argument,"Glenn was justified in commanding Zero to protect Daryl. Shane, you're my friend and I love you man, but you had no right coming in there and hitting Daryl. You got your punishment with that wound and your nose, so we drop this subject."

"I was wondering what that scuffle was about last night." Jenner came walking in, looking a little better than he did the previous day,"There's a first aid kit on the counter if you want to take care of your wound."

Shane glowered at Glenn and Daryl. Daryl glared right back, backed up by Zero, who was now looking at Shane too. He barked, Shane flinched.

Jenner shuffled around in the kitchen for a few minutes, coming back with a bone and tossing it to Zero. Zero jumped up, trying to catch the bone in his mouth. He caught part of it, only for it to slip out of his mouth and fall on the floor. He didn't seem to mind it falling, and lay down to begin gnawing on the bone.

"I like that dog," Jenner muttered, walking back out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I''ll try and update a little faster this time. Have a good day guys!


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still. Not. Dead. 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> but my fingers are.

Glenn didn't know Zero could bark so loud. Daryl was losing his shit, everyone was panicking. Their temporary peace ripped away from them so suddenly and replaced with the fear of death. Glenn grabbed Zero by his collar and pulled him back. 

"Zero, come on boy." He said, turning and running to the room he shared with Daryl. Zero quieted and followed after him quickly. 

Glenn grabbed all the clothes he could and stuffed them into his half-full bag and attempted to get Daryl's shit together. It was just his crossbow, bolts, and a black backpack that had never been unpacked. He slung the bag over his shoulder and began to head back out. Daryl came sprinting in just then, crashing into Glenn and knocking him down.

"Dammit." Daryl pulled Glenn up and took his bag and crossbow,"C'mon. We're gettin' out of here."

Glenn rubbed his nose, which had collided with Daryl's broad shoulder in the collision. Daryl took him by the wrist and led him out of the room. Zero ran along with them as they ran back out into the entrance and began to search for a way out. Glenn felt himself panicking when the glass wouldn't break. 

He was already rushing back when Rick pulled out the beretta. Once far enough away, he dropped to his knees and covered Zero's ears. Daryl was running to him when it detonated, nearly knocking the man down with the force. One of the windows shattered. Glenn was on his feet and pulling Zero along with him before he could even register it.

Zero was a little panicked, from both the explosion and the chaos. Groaning, Daryl shoved his bag and crossbow into Glenn's arms,"Get moving!" Glenn reluctantly began to run, leaving his dog and Daryl behind.

When he looked back, Daryl had picked up Zero and was running with him. Shaky, Glenn leaped up and slipped out the window, followed by Lori, and then Daryl. Zero lept out of Daryl's arms the moment they were outside and tore after Glenn, barking and whining.  Glenn barely made it to the grass before he was stumbling and falling, Daryl's crossbow smacking him in the face, something sharp hitting his hip. 

Daryl and Zero stopped beside him, although Zero lept inside of the RV, and Daryl stayed outside with Glenn. Glenn had earned a cut to the bridge of his nose and a small bruise on the side of his face, from the crossbow and a bolt had sliced the delicate skin on his hip. Glenn sat up, rubbing his nose. He heard someone yelling something about Dale and Andrea coming out, and time running out.

"Ya alright?" Daryl wasn't near as worried about the CDC being a ticking time bomb as he was about Glenn. Before Glenn could get any words out, the CDC went up in flames. Glenn jumped in surprise, having thought they had more time than they originally did. 

Daryl's arm was instantly around him, squeezing him and watching the building as it went down. Glenn couldn't believe it. Just like that, Jenner and Jacqui died, just like that. He gulped, thoughts running through his mind about how everything was gone now. The couch he had slept in, the showers, the book he had read, his shirt. He reached up to make sure his baseball cap was still on.

Daryl pulled Glenn up to his feet and led him over towards the RV. Glenn was in a daze, barely even realizing he was on his feet until Daryl was pulling his hat over his face. Daryl was already halfway to his truck when Glenn finally snapped out of it. He bounded into the RV and checked up on Zero, who was sitting in the back on the bed. 

"Come on!" He stood halfway out the door, waving Dale and Andrea on,"Come on!"

* * *

 

Glenn couldn't wrap his brain around it. The Vatos were just, gone, just like that. Daryl snapping and putting Andrea's observation skills six feet under had made him want to laugh but, he didn't think he could. Glenn could tell all too easily that Daryl was on edge, probably out of fear of being attacked by whoever killed the Vatos. 

Daryl cornered him a few minutes after they left T-Dog on his shift,"You feel safe here, kid?"

"I-I guess." He shrugged, leaning against the wall behind him.

"That's not an answer, Glenn." Daryl shot him a stern look,"If you don't feel safe here, hell I'll take you and Zero and we'll find someplace else."

Glenn shook his head, tears beginning to brim his eyes,"Just don't leave me on my own."

"Shit, Glenn. Don't go turning on the waterworks on me now..." Daryl wrapped his free arm around the smaller male and pulled him into his chest. Glenn struggled to fight back his tears, but it only resulted in him shaking and blubbering and causing Zero to whimper.

Daryl dropped his crossbow in exchange for wrapping his other arm around Glenn and let him cry. He didn't really know why the kid was crying, but he figured it was because of the days hectic events. He didn't blame Glenn for crying, he just wished he was his usual, happy-go-lucky self. 

"S-sorr-ry." Glenn pulled back, running his hand over the wet spot that had formed on Daryl's chest.

Daryl didn't say anything. He just pulled Glenn and Zero into one of the empty rooms they had cleared and sat down in the big black chair pulled Glenn into his lap. Glenn curled up against him, his head against his chest, legs dangling off the arm of the chair. Zero paced the room, sniffing and investigating until he found a good place to lay down, occasionally looking up at his owners. Glenn passed out somewhere along the line, with Daryl not far behind.

When he woke up, a pair of big brown doe eyes were looking up at him, combined with a goofy smile. It caused a small smile of his own to creep onto his face. He couldn't help himself. Forgetting all about his 'Dixon's don't do mushy girly shit' motto (which really wasn't much of a motto by the way) he leaned down and pressed his lips to Glenn's, that smile still on his face. 

Glenn cupped the side of Daryl's face and leaned up into it, teeth clacking together lazily. Daryl immediately froze, realizing what he had just done. Glenn suckered him back in with soft kisses and nimble fingers scratching his scalp.

A knock on the door sent them both flying apart in surprise, Glenn falling on the floor with a squeak that was **not** girly mind you. It was a very uh...manly squeak, although Daryl would argue otherwise. Daryl scrambled for his crossbow, as the door began to open. Zero raised his head, ears pricking up.

It was just Rick.

"Hey, we're leaving in a few minutes. You two ready?" Rick chuckled, upon seeing the flustered Korean and overly defensive redneck.

"Y-yeah." Glenn nodded, still on the floor,"We'll be there in a sec."

Rick left, leaving the two of them to exchange glances and get themselves calmed down. Glenn sprung up to his feet, pecked Daryl on the lips, and bounded out of the room with Zero. Daryl furrowed his eyebrows and looked at his reflection in the mirror.

Wasn't it just the other day that he and Glenn were merely friends? He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He didn't mind the huge amount of affection Glenn demanded from him, it was kind of nice to have the kid around, he just wasn't expecting the kid to choose him of all people. Hell, it seemed like the kid lived for every moment he got with him alone. 

"You coming?" Glenn had stuck his head into the room. He nodded, and the kid disappeared once again.

He looked at himself in the mirror again,"What've you gotten yourself into, Dixon."

* * *

 

"Zero, down." Glenn dropped and rolled under the car before he could see where Daryl was. Zero lay down as commanded, sharp eyes looking from Glenn to the walkers coming towards them,"Crawl." 

He heard a thunk behind him. Glenn looked over, seeing that it was Shane. Obediently, Zero began to crawl forward and disappeared under the car. Glenn made sure to tuck his tail in and clamped his arm around him. The walkers crept by, their horrid smell and their grunts and groans following like a parade band.

They couldn't see what was going on, but they could faintly hear Sophia start crying. They both looked at each other, silently asking question after question. Glenn panicked,'Have you seen Daryl?' he mouthed, not caring that just last the other night, Zero's teeth were in the man's arm. Shane shook his head, cooperative for once.

They remained there for a few minutes, listening to the horde go by. When the coast was clear and they were beginning to roll out, Sophia's frightened screams and the sound of a walker made them both freeze and look at each other in pure fear.

Zero whined as what appeared to be Sophia went running, with walkers behind her. Glenn, Shane, and Zero scrambled out from under the car, just in time to see Rick disappear into the woods, and Carol crying. They jogged up to meet with the rest of the group, who was currently trying to comfort Carol.

Glenn pulled Zero by his collar to the RV and froze when he saw Andrea.

"Andrea, are you alright?" He looked down at the dead walker, then back to her.

"Y-Yeah." She choked out, standing up and hugging him,"What's going on?"

"I think Sophia got chased off by walkers, Rick went after her." Glenn looked back at Zero,"Daryl's taught Zero to trace scents. I was gonna get his gear on him before anything else."

"Alright." Andrea squeezed past him and grabbed hold of the walkers feet,"Help me with this?"

"Sure." He helped her get the walker off the RV and then went to work getting Zero's vest and leash out. 

He used a different vest than the one Daryl gave him. He had found it back in Atlanta and stuffed it into his things, he had nearly forgotten about it after Daryl came up with the new vest. The vest Daryl had given him was heavier, though, and Zero didn't need to carry anything. So he was going to use this new one.

It fit him like a glove. It was black, and a bit longer than the original, but it fit. Zero sniffed the new attire, then let out a happy bark. Glenn held his finger to his lips and shushed him.

"How long he had that?" Glenn spun around and almost shrieked when he saw a large figure before him. It was only Daryl.

"Daryl?" Said man looked confused as all hell,"Where the hell were you?"

"A bit up the road, T-Dog cut himself on somethin'." Daryl shrugged,"You gonna answer my question?"

"I uh, picked it up a few days before you showed up with the vest for him to carry supplies." Glenn clipped Zero to a leash and hooked his thumbs in his pockets,"I figured I should only use that one for carrying supplies, since it's heavier, and this one for everything else."

"What're we gonna be using him fo-" Daryl was cut off by Rick running back and yelling,"Oh."

"Yeahhh."

* * *

 

Glenn had been pacing for the past 20 minutes. After being sent back with Shane, despite Daryl's growled protest, and being separated from Zero, hell he had a right to be nervous. Carol looked like she was about to join his frenzy in pacing a hole into the fucking ground, even beginning to walk her own miniature circles. 

He had his bag on his back, and Daryl's pistol in its holster on his hip, hidden by his shirt. Since Dale and Shane thought it was alright to start scooping up weapons and disarming them. Glenn knew better than to sit around and let them take his weapons, Daryl's especially. He also knew they would take the knives and Daryl's smaller gun (this man had a shit ton of weapons) out of Zero's vest since the dog wasn't wearing it.

So that was packed up in his bag, along with other heavy items. His back ached, his head was about to explode with worry, it was hot out-shit he needed to go get some water from that truck Shane had found. Of course, Carol was the one that saw them coming back, letting out a sharp wail when she saw that Sophia wasn't there with them.

Glenn turned and sprinted to where Daryl and Rick were returning. Zero was running to him in an instant, jumping the railing and meeting him halfway. Glenn dropped down to his knees, not caring if he skinned them up, and threw his arms around his dog. Their reunion was cut short when the news about Sophia began to spread through the group.

Yeah, he felt really bad for Sophia and Carol and all, but right now, he was just worried about his dog. He went to work getting the second vest out, ready to keep at least some kind of weapon that the others didn't know about yet.

"You know." Daryl was suddenly kneeling beside him,"It detaches." He put down his crossbow, and detached the black bag from either side of the vest, and then reattached it to Zero's new one,"Why ya carrying your bag?"

Glenn looked back, then lowered his voice,"They're taking our guns."

"They get mine?"

"I grabbed them before they could." Glenn moved his shirt up to reveal the pistol on his hip.

Daryl nodded,"We don't need him carrying two guns. Give me that one, I'll put it in Merle's bike. I'll get some more rounds too, we don't need them gettin' bit and leaving us defenseless."

Glenn followed Daryl to the bike and slipped him the weapon in exchange for the bullets, and put them into Zero's pack. Once they had their weapons hidden, Glenn put back his bag and sat down beside Daryl in the grass beside the road.

"We're sleeping out here?" He asked, petting Zero.

"Have to." Daryl pointed over to the semi that Glenn and Shane had hidden under previously,"I was thinkin' we could sleep there. Don't wanna be out in the open like this."

Glenn groaned,"Do we really have to sleep on the road?"

Daryl shook his head,"No not under it. It's got a cabin in the back, already cleared it out earlier."

"We could just sleep with the others in the truck hauling the beds." 

"It's gonna be crowded. You can if you want but-"

"No I was just...reminding you that was an option." Glenn smiled sheepishly,"I...kind of forgot, they didn't have room for me and my 'mutt'."

"Screw 'em." Daryl stood up,"C'mon."

Glenn and Zero obediently followed Daryl onto the semi, and into the back. There was a good sized bed fit into the back of the truck, bigger than the couch and with plenty of leg room. There was also a sunroof, which allowed them to see the stars, and a purple wildflower, standing out from the black comforter.

"I uh..." Daryl scratched the back of his neck nervously when Glenn just stared at the flower,"Sorry I'm not-I'm not good with this whole...dating...stuff."

Glenn picked up the flower, looking at it carefully, then looking up at Daryl with his goofy grin,"Thank you." He leaned over and kissed the man on the cheek. 

There was a loud knock on the door. Daryl left to go see who it was, while Glenn did...whatever he was doing. Dale was outside, waiting on him.

"We have room for one more." He said,"Care to join us?"

"Nah, I'm staying here with Glenn and Zero." Daryl glanced back when the kid dropped something,"There's somethin' I gotta tell you old man."

Dale nodded,"Okay."

"If Shane, or anybody else ever, ever messes with Glenn, you best be telling me. Because if I find out about anybody else messin' with him and Zero I'm gonna-"

"Okay okay." Dale held up his hands,"I understand."

"You better."

"The same goes to you." Dale took a few steps back and began to walk away,"Hurt him and I'll skin your hide!"

Daryl went back into the truck, shutting and locking the door behind himself. In the course of the thirty or so seconds, Glenn had removed Zero's vest and had sat down on the edge of the bed. The flower was laying on the little built-in shelf.

"Who was it?" Glenn pulled two granola bars from his bag, handing one to Daryl.

"Dale." Glenn got this look of slight annoyance on his face, which quickly exchanged for a smile and crinkling eyes,"You fed Zero yet?"

"Yeah." Glenn peeled open the granola and bit into it, trying not to grimace at the flavor,"I never eat until he does."

They ate in silence, with Glenn stripping from his clothes as he ate. Daryl tried not to look at the kids ass as he stripped down to only his boxers.  Lucky for him, Zero was in the perfect place so that he could discreetly sneak a peek without Glenn being able to tell the differe- oh god he was bending over. 

Glenn rummaged through his bag for a moment, leaving little to Daryl's imagination,"Take a picture," Glenn tossed a rectangular white device to him, a smirk on his face,"It'll last longer."

Daryl's cheeks heated up,"I was looking at Zero."

"Mhm." Glenn grabbed the device from the bed, and sat on the elders lap,"Your cheeks are red, you were looking at my ass. Not that I mind but..." He trailed off as he held the button on the right side, and turned on the device.

Daryl put his arms around Glenn's waist to keep him grounded, and looked at the black startup screen  being displayed,"You still have your phone?"

"And my computer." Glenn winked,"There's still power in this thing, so I figured I'd be able to turn it on and charge it after."

The large white Samsung felt so weird in his hands, even as he typed in his passcode and it unlocked. His background was fairly simple, it was black, with a neon blue abstract design. He didn't know why he liked it so much.

He moved from Daryl's lap, noticing how his hands fell from his hips and brushed his ass, and lay down on the bed.  Daryl followed suit, watching what Glenn was doing. Glenn went into his camera and flicked on the front view.

"Smile." 

"Huh?"

"I take a picture of myself every time I turn it on," He explained,"Now come on, smile."

Daryl forced a smile, which quickly turned into a real one when he saw the stupid face Glenn made. Glenn took the picture, and immediately clicked the little square in the top left corner to look at it.

"I look ridiculous." Daryl commented, upon seeing himself,"Although not as much as you."

Glenn laughed and swiped over to the previous pictures he had taken. A total of two. The first one was from the first day of the apocalypse. It was a video, actually. Glenn played the video.

 _"So this is probably the last time I ever see my apartment..."_ Video Glenn said, turning the camera slowly to give a full view of the messy apartment. The mattress in the corner, the once stunning view from the large windows, with a perfect view of the traffic jam outside and walkers running the streets.

Video Glenn stepped out of the room, and reached for the door handle, _"Bye apartment..."_

The video ended, and Glenn swiped to the next picture. It was of him with Zero, the first week he had him. He was grinning stupidly, laying on his stomach, and Zero was sitting beside him, looking at the phone curiously.

Glenn then went into the next folder, where he moved his original photos. He showed Daryl the pictures of his sisters and his parents, and stupid things he created with extra pepperoni and this one street concert he had gone to, and a few videos of him doing stupid stuff in his house. 

"How are you still alive, kid?" Daryl chuckled, after seeing a video of Glenn's attempt at climbing a tree to save a kitten. He saved the kitten in the end, but that was beside the point.

"No idea." Glenn finished up with scrolling through endless pictures, and instead, curiously tapped his browser,"I wonder if this still works."

Of course, it didn't, but hey at least his Spotify hadn't been shut off. He had literally over a thousand songs downloaded into his huge amount of storage, all saved to his phone because he couldn't afford a high phone bill from listening to music all the time when he could just take up on the college discount offer and spend a lot less. 

He didn't want to take up two jobs again, thank you very much.

Glenn plugged the phone into the wall, and went into his favorite playlist,"Wanna listen to something?"

"Sure."

He handed the phone over and let Daryl swipe through and find a song. He was fairly surprised at how good he was at using it, swiping through and scrolling with his thumb like Glenn would when he was in a mad dash to find his favorite song while in a red light.

Seconds later, Fall Out Boy was playing from his phone. Glenn's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"What?" Daryl handed the phone back to Glenn,"I had a radio, I didn't live under a rock."

Glenn laughed,"You're so full of surprises."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The typos were horrendous, hopefully I didn't forget any xD


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im sorry im so slow, I've been watching the same KDrama all week (The Man From Nowhere) and I've been working on two other novels so I haven't had the time to work on this. But it's extra long so enjoy :)

_The bike purred perfectly as he sped down the open road. Daryl increased the speed, chasing the tail lights of a red and black bike. The figure on the bike began to grow as their speeds began to match. As he caught up, he began to recognize the features that only one person could have. Glenn turned his head to look at him, raven hair dancing with the wind._

_His brown eyes and wide smile. He was older, with a small dusting of facial hair and a slightly wider face. Glenn reached out, somehow only driving the bike with one hand, and touched his cheek. Suddenly everything flashed, and he was laying in the grass. The first thing he saw was Zero, laying beside him, tail thumping against the ground._

_There was movement on his right cheek,"Daryl."_

He turned his head, finally seeing Glenn, laying right beside him. His brown eyes practically smiling with his young grin. The kid's hand moved down his neck and trailed it down his stomach. His eyes followed it. He noticed something, which gave him a warm, fuzzy feeling.

_Glenn's belly was large and swollen with a child, his black shirt pulled back a bit, exposing the baby soft skin. He felt pride swelling in his chest, knowing that this was his baby._ _He reached out to feel over it, smiling when Glenn's hand joined his. Smiling widely, he moved closer to kiss his soft lips._

"Daryl." His eyes flashed open.

Glenn was laying beside him, in the semi, back in the end of the world. It was dark, but he could see the look of fondness and curiosity written on his face. 

"Dreaming about something?" Glenn asked, his hands running over Daryl's where it was sitting on his stomach. 

"Uh.."

Glenn giggled and looked down to where their hands were laying on his stomach,"It's okay, I kind of have a pretty good idea about it."

Daryl felt his face go red at the way Glenn looked down and smiled at his belly. Glenn scooted over and snuggled closer, nose buried in his chest,"Just go back to sleep. It's like, midnight."

Daryl linked his arm around Glenn, now noticing that Zero was curled up by their feet. The dog looked about as awake as he was, eyes wide, furry head swiveling about. Glenn was definitely awake from the way he kept moving, nose tickling Daryl's chest.

"Did I wake you up?" He finally grumbled.

"No." Glenn rolled over, trying for a different position,"I couldn't really sleep, as you can tell."

Daryl pondered a thought for a moment. He had seen a small strip mall when he had wandered ahead and left the others behind. He also hadn't seen any walkers. What would it hurt if they just...snuck off for a little bit? Even though Rick and Shane had instructed everyone to not go within 200 feet of the Semi they were sleeping in. Who would find out, right?

"Wanna do somethin?"

"Like what?"

"Saw a strip mall down the road, no walkers either."

"But Rick said not to..."

"Fuck Rick, neither of us can sleep,  so lets get out of here. They won't find out, they never do."

"Alright." Glenn got up and began throwing his clothes back on. Zero got up, his tail wagging wildly as he looked at his owners. Daryl took it upon himself to put a collar back on him and put him on a leash, grabbed his crossbow, and hopped out of the Semi.

Glenn was right behind him. Daryl took note of the fact that the kid wasn't wearing his hat.

"I didn't feel like wearing it." He explained, taking the leash from Daryl's hand and replacing it with his hand,"So where to?"

They snuck off by crouching and hiding behind cars. Shane was currently on watch, and even though it sounded like he was snoring, neither of them wanted to even so much as risk being spotted and possibly shot. Even if it was obvious it was them.

After weaving through the maze of cars, Daryl began to stand straight and quit crouching as much, which Glenn took as a sign to do the same. Zero padded along beside them in his usual fashion. Daryl smiled as he saw the kid look up at him with his glimmering eyes. He would never get used to this.

Glenn was always so damn eager to please and looked at him like he was the greatest person in the world. He was far from it, but that never stopped the young Korean.

They made it to the strip mall no problem. Daryl never had to drop Glenn's hand to aim his crossbow or anything. It was almost like taking a midnight stroll, no walkers, no end of the world, just them, the moon, and the stars.

They slunk into the strip mall, thankfully the gates had been left unlocked, and Daryl flicked on his flashlight. He didn't see any walkers, but he wasn't going to take any chances by letting go of Glenn and letting his guard down. Even if they had Zero with them.

"Now what?" Glenn asked, tugging Zero's leash to pull the dog away from a dying plant.

Daryl shrugged and began to walk down the long strip. Glenn yawned and rested his head on Daryl's shoulder, finding it easy with the height difference.

Most of the stores had been ransacked and looted, especially the sporting goods, but they managed to find a clothing store with some clothes in it, and disappeared inside.

There was a dead walker by the desk, a bullet through its brain and splattered on the wall. Zero made sure to do a detour around it, not looking away from it until he was satisfied that they wouldn't get hurt. A red and black baseball cap hanging up in the back caught Glenn's eye. He reluctantly let go of Daryl's hand to go look at the hat. He tried to get it down to get a better look, but it was just out of his reach.

A larger hand surpassed his and got the hat down. He looked down into the mirror to see Daryl leaning over him. The hat was pulled down over his head before he could even utter a word.

"What's with you and hats anyways?" Daryl couldn't help but ask. He had probably only seen Glenn without a hat four times the entire time he had known him.

"I don't know really, I guess it was because back when I played high school baseball, I got used to wearing a hat and going without one felt weird. It still does in a way." He adjusted the hat so that he could see and looked at himself in the mirror.

"You played?"

"For a while." Glenn looked down at his feet,"I had to quit because the Pitcher kept beating me up every chance he got." He turned his neck to reveal a thin white scar,"He got me with his knife one day and I just never came back to practice."

Daryl lightly ran his finger over the scar. He hadn't noticed it before. It angered him to know somebody had done this to the kid. Before he knew what he was doing, he was leaning down and kissing the scar. Glenn's skin shivered under his touch.

"Aint nobody been messing with you lately?" He asked, putting his hand on Glenn's waist possessively.

"Nope." Glenn turned his hat around backwards and kissed his cheek.

They found some clothes that fit them and stuffed them into a plastic bag. Somehow Glenn ended up wearing Daryl's oversized shirt and Daryl ended up wearing a Navy blue dress shirt with actual sleeves. Which took some convincing from Glenn.

"You look so weird with sleeves." Glenn laughed, feeling Daryl's bicep through the shirt,"You look good."

"I feel like a -"

"Yeah yeah, you can take it off." He turned and wandered off to the other side of the store where Zero was laying,"You're not getting your shirt back."

There was a shelf for pet clothes off to the side. It sparked an idea in Glenn's head, and he scavenged through it until he found what he was looking for. A two-toned grey sweatshirt. Zero jumped up and came padding over and a simple hand signal, and Glenn put the sweatshirt on him. 

"Go get Daryl." He whispered, pointing over to where Daryl was fiddling with his crossbow. Zero looked at Daryl, then back to Glenn, as if questioning what the was saying. Glenn pointed at Daryl again,"Go get him." Finally, Zero understood and went trotting over to Daryl. 

Daryl chuckled at the sight of the dog and knelt down to pet him,"What did he do to you?"

Glenn walked over grinning from ear to ear,"I think he likes it."

Daryl rolled his eyes and walked over, meeting Glenn half way,"You ready?" Glenn nodded, holding up the bag of clothes. 

Daryl grabbed Zero's leash from the floor and put his crossbow over his shoulder. Glenn turned to look at something shiny while he did so. Daryl looked at Zero, then back at Glenn. The kid was taking too damn long. He kicked his foot out and waited for the kid to take a step backwards. He did and went flailing backwards, squeaking as it happened.

Daryl caught him and scooped him off of the ground bridal style,"Your takin too long." 

Glenn looked down at Zero, who was happily walking beside them. Daryl moved to push open the door, swinging Glenn about and startling him. Glenn linked his arms around Daryl's neck and pressed close to him, in fear of being dropped. 

Apparently, Daryl wasn't done there. He went towards the gate, and then took a right, and walked up the stairs on the side, and walked right onto the roof. It was clear that it was used for some kind of party, lounge chairs were strewn this way and that and a grill off to the side. Glenn looked up at Daryl and smiled when he saw the man looking back down at him. 

Daryl sat down in one of the lounge chairs that hadn't been destroyed and placed Glenn in his lap, lounging back and looking towards the road. Glenn moved with him, shifting a bit so that he wouldn't crush any...delicate pieces.  He found himself looking at three small scars on Daryl's left arm. It was thin and almost looked like an upside down triangle, but he could tell that they were three individual scars. 

Daryl took Glenn's smaller hand and guided it to the scar on top,"Locker room door," To the scar on the far left,"Knife," Then to the one on the far right,"Same knife."

"Oh." Glenn ran his fingers over the triangle scar and kissed it like Daryl had done with the scar on the side of his neck. 

"Why do ya do this?"

"Huh?"

"You always act like I'm gold or somethin'. I'm far from it kid, but you still do it. Why?" Daryl had to tear his eyes away from those gorgeous eyes to look up at the stars instead,"You could have anyone but you picked me."

Glenn thought for a minute. The man's words had shocked him, he wasn't expecting to hear them, especially from Daryl, of all people,"You're...special." He hoped Daryl wouldn't tune him out for his choice of words,"I could tell from the start you were. You're strong and have a thick outer shell, but...once I got to know you, you turned out to have a heart of gold. I've seen you face hard situations, one's that I would crumple under, and you come out stronger than you were before. You're different from the others, I've known a ton of people in my short excuse of a lifetime and none of them come close to you."

Glenn stopped his rambling and looked over to make sure Daryl hadn't fallen asleep. He found that the man was intently looking at him,"You're kind of like...a badass teddy bear." Daryl smiled a little at the comparison. 

They stayed curled up like that for maybe 10 minutes before Glenn started getting sleepy, and passed out on Daryl. Daryl too felt himself getting tired, wanting nothing more than to just stay like that forever.

"Glenn." He patted the kid's cheek and found the ticklish spot along Glenn's collar bone.

Glenn squeaked and squirmed, smaller hands fighting to stop him. Daryl stopped once he deemed the kid to be awake,"C'mon."

Glenn got up to his tired feet and walked over to where Zero was looking through the metal bars at the highway. It was so weird to see it so empty, no matter how much he tried to adjust to the whole end of the world thing.

"Do you think we would have met if the world didn't end?" Glenn thought aloud, as he followed Daryl down the stairs.

Daryl shrugged,"Maybe."

Glenn sleepily followed alongside Daryl the rest if the way back. Zero himself seemed tired, tail low and yawning. They made it to the semi, only killing two walkers in the process. Zero was the first to jump in and bounded to the bed, followed by Glenn and Daryl. Glenn once again shed his clothes and curled up in his former spot. By the time Daryl got in, the Korean was nearly asleep.

* * *

 

Bam_

Zero's head shot up at the sound of the gunshot. Glenn and Daryl looked at each other as if one of them would know what it had been about. They continued walking, it wasn't like a single gunshot was a big deal, until Lori stopped behind them, practically forcing them to stop as well. Zero walked ahead a few steps, looked at Glenn, then returned and set between him and Daryl.

"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asked. 

"That was a gunshot."  _No shit_. Daryl wanted to reply, he was getting sick of the constant worrying the woman was doing. 

"We all heard it." He said instead.

Lori turned around and looked at him as if he had just slapped her in the face,"Why one? Why just one gunshot?"

He looked at Glenn, then shrugged,"Maybe he took down a walker."

"Please patronize me, you know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane. They'd do it quietly." Daryl had a list of replies running through his brain within a split second, all ranging from rated M to R, if it hadn't been for Glenn's pleading look and Carol speaking up, he would have used at least one of them. 

"Shouldn't they have been caught up by now?" Carol asked, unsurely.

"There's nothing we can do about it anyway." He finally said, taking a look around,"We'd be running around these woods chasing echoes."

"So what do we do?" Lori inquired as if Daryl were to have an answer.

"Same as we've been." He nudged Zero's side and made a small motion for him to stand up,"Beat the bush for Sophia and work our way back to the highway."

He quit listening to whatever was being talked about and began to walk again. He whistled and jutted his thumb over to his left, where Glenn was obediently trudging along. Obediently, the wolfdog trotted over to Glenn and followed his side. When they realized that Andrea and Carol weren't following, they stopped again.

"We're all hoping and praying for you." Andrea said,"For what it's worth."

Glenn could practically see the annoyance turning Daryl's head red and blowing it off like he was a cartoon character. Daryl walked back once again,"I'll tell you what its worth." He said,"Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time all this hopin' and prayin'. We're gonna locate that little girl, and she's gonna be just fine."

Glenn turned and began to walk with Zero, trying to hide his giggle when he heard Daryl say,"Am I the only one Zen around here? Good lord."

They began walking again, in a comfortable silence, except for Daryl radiating his anger for the next five minutes. Zero casually walked along, dropping back sometimes to walk beside Lori and letting her pet him, and then running back up to join Daryl, then going back to Glenn. But never straying ahead. 

Glenn assumed it was something Daryl had taught him. He remembered the one Dog Whisperer guy on TV saying something about teaching dogs-er...wolfdogs that you're the alpha and that you lead them, they don't lead you. Or maybe it was just something that Zero did, he didn't know.

"Why can't you just have Zero track her down?" Andrea finally asked, making a careless gesture towards Zero.

"We ain't got nothin' for him to track." Daryl said coldly,"Sides, even if he could pick up her trail we would be runnin' through these woods for hours until we could catch up to her. God knows how long she's been runnin around."

Glenn sensed Andrea wanting to have some kind of comeback. Maybe ask if Daryl has even trained Zero to track scents at all, or something to both insult and provoke him. However, they managed to keep walking, Glenn finally caught up to Daryl and playfully nudged him every now and then. Sometimes picking up a stick and throwing it for Zero to go tumbling off and catch. 

They stopped for a quick debate, which was quickly ended by Daryl whistling and turning back, with Glenn and Zero following at his heels, all too familiar with the wordless, 'come on'. There was a small bit of griping from Andrea and a few muttered words from Lori, luckily not enough that would cause Daryl to reply.

Glenn gave up on trying to keep Daryl's mood light and instead focused on petting Zero as they walked and playing little games with him. Though that mood was practically enslaved when Andrea started screaming. They all turned and sprinted in the direction she had gone, with Zero barking and whining out of pure confusion. The next thing Glenn knew a girl went riding by on a horse and hit the walker with a baseball bat.

"Lori? Lori Grimes?" The girl asked, a thick Georgian accent like honey on her voice.

"I'm Lori."

Glenn already had the sneaking suspicion before the girl could speak,"There's been an accident, Carl's been shot." Glenn felt so bad for Lori right that moment it almost made him sick,"He's still alive, but you gotta come now."

There was silence. Disbelief washing over their fragment of the group.

The girl grew a little more frantic,"Rick needs you, just come!"

Bickering ensued, Daryl being the most down to Earth and realistic about this and bringing up the fact that they didn't know this girl. Glenn wanted to bash his head into a tree at how fast the girl threw directions at him and then took off without a second thought on the matter.

Great, now Carl was shot, Lori was gone, he had another backpack to carry, Andrea was scared shitless, Carol was more frightened than she previously had been, and Daryl was pissed off. Great, just great. At least Zero was alright.

* * *

 

"Carl's been shot." Andrea blurted, as soon as they got back.

"Shot? What do you mean, shot?" Dale came rushing up to them, leaving a breathless Glenn to explain.

"I don't know, Dale." He panted,"Listen, all I know is this chick rode in out of nowhere like Zora on a horse and took Lori."

"You let her?"

"Climb down out of my ass old man, Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's." Daryl went storming off to the Semi they had spent the night in, probably to go get some of the water Glenn had brought back to wake him up with. The guy sleeps like the dead.

When the next debate came up and Dale suggested they send Glenn off to find the people that may or may not be their first arch enemy, _and_ leave behind Zero, Daryl saved his ass with his brother's stash. 

"Okay, we need some new rules about what you guys send me off on," Glenn said, kicking his legs back and forth from where he sat on the roof of a car. Thanks to Daryl helping him up there.

"Glenn you're just doing simple runs." Andrea started to say.

"Simple runs? I've almost died on those 'simple runs' way too may time to count, I volunteered for those, I get that, but some things I just don't wanna do. Especially going somewhere all alone to meet with people that could be out to kill me, and leaving Zero, just because Dale told me to!" Glenn flung his arms out as he spoke, nearly causing himself to fall off the car.

"Glenn has a point." Carol said, breaking her silence,"We can't just go ordering him around against his will."

"Well, we need someone to go find the other half of the group." Dale pressed.

"They'll come back." Glenn said,"They're not gonna just leave us. Shane will probably come find us tomorrow." Dale wordlessly went into the RV, followed by Carol. Leaving Glenn and Zero on their own. Daryl came about a few minutes later, carrying a few wet rags and a bottle of water.

"Havin' fun with your debates?" The redneck asked, carefully stepping over Zero, who lay a few feet ahead of Glenn.

"A blast." Glenn planted both hands beside himself to keep himself steady and let his legs fit around the man. He lightly ran his fingers over Daryl's dirty neck,"It's been what? Two, three days since you last had a shower? You're worse than a toddler."

"I was gonna wash it off..." Daryl looked down at the water and rags in his hands, 

Glenn laughed and took the items from Daryl's hands and went to work cleaning the man up. Daryl shut his eyes and let Glenn do his thing. The kid could switch from goofy, socially awkward pizza delivery boy that was overly cuddly, and knew no boundaries, to an over worrying mother within a split second. 

"You gonna bake cookies and give me a bubble bath too?" He chuckled, turning his neck so Glenn could see better.

"I wish." It would be nice to eat fresh baked cookies and have a bubble bath, even though .he was more of a shower person, he had always loved bubble baths. Especially as a child, it was better than candy or a new action figure, in his eyes.

He finished cleaning Daryl's upper chest and went to work on his hands and arms, which was a little bit easier. Then he moved on to Daryl's face, being a little gentler and taking his time to caress his jaw and give him a bit of a hard time. Once he deemed Daryl to be clean, he kissed his forehead and locked his legs around him.

"What?" Daryl looked at him curiously.

"Get me down from here." He playfully demanded, smacking him on the shoulder with one of the dirty rags.

Daryl scoffed and rolled his eyes, and firmly planted his hands on Glenn's waist. Glenn wrapped his arms around his shoulders and let himself be picked up and placed back on the ground. Daryl began to grab the left over water and the rags.

"C'mon Zero." Glenn knelt beside his sleepy pet and began to rub his belly,"Let's get moving."

Zero obviously didn't want to get up, but he did anyways and followed his owners to the Semi. Daryl, being the gentleman that he had never been, let Zero and Glenn clamber in first. Glenn rolled his eyes at the gesture and bounded inside, opting for rooting through his bag and finding some of the fresh clothes while Daryl removed Zero's vest.

Glenn began to remove his clothes and shoved them into his bag, not caring about whether or not they would get wrinkled. Now in nothing but his yellow briefs, he decided to tuck the messy sheets over his midsection. 

He didn't want to explain his-

"Neon yellow?"

Glenn's cheeks flushed red as he scrambled under the sheets,"Don't judge!"

Daryl chuckled and continued to fumble about for a bit, until he finally joined Glenn in the bed, his legs intertwining with Glenn's baby soft ones.

"If anything, I'm judging you because your legs 're like a girls." 

"I uh..." Glenn hid his face under the pillow,"It was a dare alright?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What the hell happened

**Author's Note:**

> I love feedback :D
> 
> If you didn't see earlier, the title of this story was inspired by Bomb Digga Woo by Jhameel :)  
> Check it out! -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLW5VNDcLYc


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